A narrow path
by Birai
Summary: Mysterious forces are culminating, and Conan Edogawa seems to have a target painted on his head. Can he escape the BO, Kaitou Kid, and Ran's suspicious eye with his life intact? And will he be able to save his friends as well?
1. Black Night

**A/N: Okay, this gets really weird at times, so hang on to your bow-tie. I tried to keep them in character, I really did, but things just slipped out; it's my fanfic, anyways. So there. Nyeah. Vermouth is SUPPOSED to be the devil incarnate, right? Haibara is a bit bipolar (is she the damsel in distress, or is she the dragon?), and Shinichi is a bit of a smart-aleck and rather confrontational at times (cough*Heiji*cough), but other than that it should be fairly IC. As for the Magic Kaito crossover- well, you don't really have to have read it, not really, but... Let's just say it would definitely help, would not take you too much effort, and would be a broadening experience. There are several references thereof, but I explained most of them, and didn't use any of the characters that don't show up in DC. For those of you who have read it, can we forget Aoko for this fanfic? I mean, I love her to death as much as the next manga fanatic, but Kaito's kinda got other arrangements here. Maybe she started dating Hakuba, I dunno. I'm proud to declare that this piece is completely Mary Sue free! Even Merlot! Especially Merlot! (Eep, I slipped- Merlot is a secret character, you have to wait until later to meet her./him./it?) Anydangway, have fun with it, and don't be too hard on Merlot if you get to that part. When you get to that part? Please?**

The following is an account of what is probably the second strangest sequence of events that has ever happened to me.

The first strangest was getting turned into six-year-old Edogawa Conan by the mysterious Black Organization, and I'm fairly sure that nothing that has ever happened to anyone is going to top that. However, judging by quality over quantity, this does rank a close second.

It started out at the local faire. Ran had found tickets, and since Sonoko found an excuse to leave, my friend decided that I would love to come along instead. And since Ran is Ran, and I'm currently three feet shorter than she is, so did I. In fact, since it was just the two of us, I almost had a good time. Almost. Things started going downhill after the ferris wheel, on the whole really, not just the... For lack of a better term, I'm going to call it a "date".

I don't particularly like ferris wheels. Never had anything against them, per se, but let's just say that getting shorter didn't help. Something about spinning in a circle fifty feet off the ground just never appealed to me. Sure, the view and all, but you can go to the Tokyo tower, or any building of your choice really, and get the exact same thing with half the nausea. And no movement. Constant round and round movement, which, combined with the glaringly bright amusement park lights and the decidedly plastic hot dog I'd eaten earlier, was making me just a little bit ill. Swinging my legs listlessly, I tried to act like a six-year-old, pointing excitedly at the now tiny hot dog vendor and silently cursing him for giving me salmonella.

I leaned out the window, praying that I wouldn't hurl over the side. Ran grabbed my leg, and I tensed.

"Conan, you shouldn't sit like that, you're going to fall!"

"Don't worry, Ran nee-san," It was still kind of awkward to call her that. "I promise I won't!"


	2. White Knight

**AN: Is first person omniscient a valid POV? Oh well, it is now.**

In the car below Ran and I, Kaito Kuroba sat gazing out at the horizon and planning his next theft. A sizable emerald called the Dragon Scale was on display, and the owner thereof had boasted of the new state-of-the-art guarding mechanism for about a week, calling on Kaitou Kid with disturbing confidence: "This will be the one gem Kid will never have!"

"The nerve!" He leaned back in his seat, stretching his legs across the empty car. "Expecting me to run for cover on an invitation like that." Kaito sighed. "Though really, it's not like I _can._" He listened idly to the people in the car above him, wondering how he should word his announcement of the heist.

_"Conan, you really shouldn't do that, you're going to- CONAN!_

Kaito leaned his head out the window in time to see a six-year-old boy hanging over him.

"Ran! Don't drop me!" I screamed. Ho-leeee crap, I was screwed! Ran was desperately clutching my leg, and trying to pull me back up into the carriage. This succeeded in almost dislocating my knee (it's possible, trust me), but didn't get me any closer from sudden death.

"Conan- I've only got your shoe, you have to-"

And I fell.

Now, normally I would have expected my painfully short existence to flash before my eyes, or to have this huge revelation about the meaning of life, but I think pretty much the only thing going through my head was _Oh SHI-_


	3. Falling For You

"-" _We now return to your previously scheduled scream of terror_, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa- aaah- ah?" Make that a _squeak_ of terror. It wasn't quite a scream anymore. I figured that it usually takes someone more than twenty seconds to fall from a ferris wheel, which was how long I'd been screaming. I heard someone next to me gasping for breath, though my eyes were still closed.

"Oh man, I think you broke one of my ribs," he coughed. I opened my eyes, half expecting the ground to immediately come up and kill me, and I looked over at the other person in the car.

Next to me, Shinichi Kudo was clutching his stomach and trying to get his breath back.

Wait- what? No, it couldn't be me- _I_ was me. (You know, this identity crisis is just annoying the heck out of me.) I did a double take, and realized that he looked slightly different from me once you looked at him long enough. Most of the difference was his hair; we could have been brothers, even twins, we looked so similar. He finally stopped coughing, and smiled weakly.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Y-yeah." My voice quavered like warm jell-o, and I quickly cleared my throat. "Yes, I'm fine. Th-thank you." Well, it worked for a second...

"Well, what do you expect me to do, let you fall?" he laughed. "Sorry I couldn't catch your glasses, though. I'm Kaito, by the way."

"My name's Conan." It felt hard to call myself that without my glasses, for some reason. "Edogawa Conan."

"C-Conan?" His smile slipped for half a second, and I couldn't quite read what emotion he was trying to cover up. Surprise? Fear, maybe? But why... "That's a British name, right?"

"Er, yes." It felt like I had seen him before, and not just from the fact that he looked like me. As he calmed down, his increasingly easy manner seemed strikingly familiar. I just couldn't figure out where I had met him. "Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the Sherlock Holmes series. Otou-san read all of the books."

"Is that so." His grin took on a mysterious touch that I definitely knew from somewhere, which made things even worse, pulling the answer closer while I still couldn't quite reach it. "Well, it's lucky I was here to catch you- that's a bit of a drop." He leaned out slightly to look at it, and I made a face behind his back.

Now, if you made a list of things that I would call my life and dangled it from the moon, it would touch the ground, loop around my house three times, and get halfway back to the starting point, but Lucky would not be on it.

"Oh, yes." I remembered that Kaito was sitting next to me, and nodded happily. "Very lucky." We sat in silence for most of the ride, and I wondered vaguely how I had managed to escape dying _again_. It's really surprising how many times I've been almost-killed. And the sickening thought is that it's only going to take one to _really_ kill me. Thing is, though...

Which one is it going to be?

When our carriage pulled into the dock, Ran was about to have a heart attack.

"CONAN you _idiot_, how could you do something like that?! You could have died! You almost did! Young man, you are not going on another one of these until you are _twenty!_" And so it went.

_Thank God,_ I thought idly,_ By the time I'm twenty in _this_ body, I'll have moved out of the apartment. With luck, at least, seeing as you'll have recognized me by that point..._ I shuddered, thinking of what would happen if I actually aged to sixteen again, and listened to Ran finish up her rant.

"... that I have _ever_ seen, and- and I'm just glad you're safe, okay?" Her voice broke, and she hugged me; I made a noise akin to a squeaky dog toy. Okay, maybe being a chibi little midget has its benefits. I looked around for Kaito, but found to my surprise that he had disappeared into the crowd.


	4. It Might Just Fit If

Kaito grinned excitedly. It wasn't often he got to use his skills for his own agenda, but this was special. He hadn't just stumbled upon the usual honking big rock that was generally his focus, but two agents of the Organization. Lapping his ice cream cone in the mid-afternoon heat, Kaito sidled casually behind his quarries. He was disguised as a woman a little bit younger than him, short feathery hair dyed bubble gum pink. Donning platform shoes, knee-high stripy socks, a shiny leather miniskirt, matching vest, and fingerless wool elbow gloves, he decided that dressing in all black was not the best option for 70 degree weather.

_At least I didn't go with the long hair,_ he thought relievedly. _Now _that_ would have been torture._ He focused on the two in front of him, carefully watching them walk down the street. Into the coffee shop, out of the coffee shop, around the block two or three times. Kaito resisted the urge to scream, and tried not to adjust his wig. Finally, mercifully, the muted chase led him to a large office building that was simply _crawling_ with black-suited men and women. With a slight change of attire, he was in, still disguised as a girl for consistency's sake, though a bit older and with different hair.

Computers had never been Kaito's strong point. Sure, he could use one if need be, though the only one he had any experience in using was his absolutely-ancient-thirdhand-thrift-store-bought computer at home. But even he knew how to browse files on the huge desktop monitor in the first empty room. And what he saw was very interesting indeed.

_Edogawa Conan._

What in the... _Click_.

_Speculation. Status._

Speculation sounded intriguing. _Click_.

_Likely connection to Kudo Shinichi. If the boy weren't marked as dead, I would say they may even be the same person. -Vermouth_

_Possible connection to Sherry. -Gin_

_If Vermouth and Gin's theories are correct, APTX-4869 may have unexpected results. -Campari_

A chill crept lazily across Kaito's skin. Shinichi and Conan, the same person? How was that possible? Did it have something to do with APTX-4869, whatever that was?

On a lark, he clicked Status. The three words that appeared on the screen sealed whatever lurking doubts he'd had on what to do about this.

_Slated for execution._


	5. This Time, It's a Little Different

Two days after the incident at the faire, I found myself presented with a dilemma: an utterly irresistible case, and a completely unthinkable risk. Though it wasn't a murder, the opportunity might as well have been thwacking me over the head with a neon sign, because it was shown on television.

I was sitting in the kitchen reading, when suddenly Ran skidded in from the living room.

"Conanconanconan, look at the TV, look at the TV, quick!" She was literally jumping up and down, something I would more expect from Sonoko, and I wasn't sure if she was scared or excited or both, it was hard to tell. But I quickly followed her to the couch in time to catch the last half of the news. Ran flipped to a different channel that showed the same programs but a few minutes delayed. We caught the reporter mid-sentence.

"...say that this note was received by the Japanese police force this morning, apparently sent by Kid the Phantom Thief, or, as many of you know him, Kaitou Kid.

"_This coming Wednesday, my aim will be a little bit different than usual. I know you are expecting me to make off with the emerald Dragon Scale recently put on display-" _True, I'd been waiting for that notice to come out._ "But sadly, I must disappoint you there. This time, I intend to steal..."_

After learning his target, I didn't hear the rest of the newscast. I think I fainted, because the next thing I remember is waking up to see Ran checking my temperature and Koigoro taking a phone call.

"Mouri residence? Yes, this is he. Conan? Yeah, he's here. Yeah, sure." Koigoro hung up and threw the phone at my head. "Oi, brat. Megure wants you over at the police station, he's sending a car."

I nodded weakly, and five minutes later, I was on my way to the headquarters. I thought of the note, the last line sending chills down my spine. Oh yes, this would be an interesting case indeed.

_This time, I intend to steal Edogawa Conan._


	6. 8th Sense: Random Guessing

**AN: Okay, ridiculously short, but it's late; cut me some slack...**

Well, Kaito couldn't just leave the boy to be killed, now could he?

The plan was fairly simple: he just needed to find out Conan's connection with the Organization, and he was fairly sure the rest would take care of itself. If possible, he could try his best to stave off any potential murderers.

Part of him wondered why he was bothering. Conan had never been anything more or less to Kaito than a supreme thorn in his side. The rest of him could easily scoff that part into oblivion for one simple reason. Call it intuition if you like, but he had a strange feeling about Conan.

A feeling that maybe the little meitantei would lead him to the Pandora gem.


	7. A Common Sense

**A/N: And no, I have no idea if it's legal to keep a six-year old in custody for more than an hour without much of a reason.**

So. A dilemma. Take refuge in the relative safety of the Police Headquarters, or put myself straight into the hands of today's most notorious thief. Admittedly, for most people, this would be no contest, but I was in a different situation. I had the resources, the guts, and most importantly the motive to catch him, and I knew I could do it. But the only problem was that I couldn't do it in front of the police, or anybody at all really. True, I'd be able to use Megure as a puppet if confronting Kid was necessary, but he wouldn't be much help after that.

In the end, I decided to turn myself to the mercy of Inspectors Nakamori and Megure instead of the Phantom Thief.

"...can't keep him for more than an hour, legally at least," Megure was explaining, "Not without his parent or guardian's consent." Nakamori seemed highly annoyed that they couldn't simply lock me up in a high-security vault the moment the heist announcement came out.

"I wonder what Kid wants with him," Nakamori whispered to Megure, glancing in my direction. I was reminded how much it gets on my nerves when people pretend that all children are deaf and blind whenever it's convenient.

Megure shrugged. "Who can tell? This is Kaitou Kid, we're not looking for any logic; after all, doesn't he return his many of his prizes after taking them? He may just be in it for a bigger challenge."

This seemed to satisfy Nakamori, but I was pretty sure that my being a target was no coincidence. If Kid had chosen any random, uh, _kid, _then he would have no way for sure of knowing that Megure would find them in time. And besides, I had introduced myself to him personally, even beat him- maybe he held a grudge.

Grudges are not to be trifled with. They kill people.

I saw Nakamori talking to a person who was about my real age.

"How are you protecting the room?" He seemed very interested in the whole thing, and I wondered if he was a junior officer in training. For some reason, I felt like I knew him from somewhere, but I couldn't quite place it.

"Actually, we aren't. The room is actually a fairly normal one, it's used for office space usually. If Kid gets past the guards, then it won't be hard to enter."

"Then how are you going to stop him from making off with this Edogawa kid?" He looked simply stunned at the lax security around the room, and frankly, I was too. Nakamori just laughed.

"Decoys."

Decoys? What in the world did he mean by decoys? It's not like I'm a gemstone, you can't just make a reproduction of an entire person. Dummies maybe? That definitely wouldn't fool Kid. So how...

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. He was six years old, about my height and weight, and looked strikingly familiar...

"Who are you?" I asked, "One of the inspectors' sons?"

"No," he grinned, "I'm Edogawa Conan!"

I stared.

And stared.

And stared some more.

"Um, no, _I'm_ Edogawa Co-"

"Of course you are, silly!" he giggled.

"But you just said-"

"I'm just practicing for Wednesday! My name's Katsumi, and I'm one of the people who's dressing up as you to confuse Kid."

Decoys! Not dummies, real live people- of course! I'd even pulled this trick twice myself.

"Ah, I see you've met Katsumi," Nakamori hastened over. "He was the first we could get on such short notice. Here, I have someone else to introduce you to..." The junior-officer-like person with him smiled, and held out his hand to me, and I suddenly knew why he was familiar.

"Kaito-san!"

"Conan-kun," he said coolly. "I didn't think I would find you here so soon."

"That's my line, Onii-san," I grinned. He laughed.

"I'm the local expert on magic; you could say I'm Kid's opposite, in many ways. Anyway, I was filled in by Inspector Nakamori, and I get to tell you about what we hope will happen on Wednesday.

"The plan is to have a bunch of people who all could be you. Hopefully, Kid will take someone else."

"But then they'll be kidnapped."

"Not for long." Kaito held up Katsumi's jacket sleeve, pointing to the button on it. "They all have tracers."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why not just fit _me_ out with tracers?"

"Oh, we will," he nodded, "But the main purpose of all this is to make sure that _you_ don't get captured personally. We're figuring that if Kid knows he's been bested, he'll just leave you be. Maybe he won't even attempt to grab you at all once he sees there's a chance he'll get the wrong one."

Better and better- these people knew Kid well. If there was even the slightest chance of a mistake, then he would be sure to make his excuses and wait for a better opportunity. Kid always plans things out perfectly, down to the last escape route. But this time, things were going to be different.

I could feel it.


	8. Through the Looking Glass

**A/N: I finally rewrote it! Yay me! And yay everyone else reading!**

On Wednesday, it turned out that there were fourteen boys playing decoy for me; we were fifteen total, all standing around in the room talking. It was a fairly simple setup- when Kid came to get me, we would all try to make as much chaos as possible. For some reason, Katsumi was keeping as close to me as a second shadow, though most of the others were scattered all over the place.

Come to think of it, most of them were in pairs too. There was one group of three, since we had an odd number of Conans, but no one was standing by themselves. I asked Katsumi about it, but all he said was that everybody had to stay with their partner. Apparently, he was mine.

We started keeping track of time at midnight on Tuesday. Most of us went straight to sleep (there were pillows and blankets), but I just couldn't. The fluorescent lights, the tension, everything seemed to be kicking my mind into overdrive. Normally this would be an interesting experience, but there was remarkably little to think about. Mostly I just had to sit back and let it unfold, for now.

I didn't even look up when the power went out.

There were mixed reactions around the room- some people screamed, some just stood there, and some kept on sleeping, but I noticed one thing immediately. Whatever one person did, their partner did too. Say one Conan was running around in circles in a corner of the room; their partner would do so as well. Katsumi was doing a very good job of mirroring my every action, and I when he saw my look of confusion, he first copied it, then grinned. I tried my best to mimic him, half instinctively, seeing everyone else copy each other as well.

"It's a diversion tactic," he whispered. "Inspector Mouri-san said that sometimes you don't really act like most six-year-olds do in certain situations, so I got assigned to copy you, because I'm the best actor out of the thirteen other _gansaku _Conans. Since it would be weird to have just two people doing the exact same thing as each other, everybody got into pairs and picked a partner..."

Suddenly, the room disappeared around me. I wasn't falling, but I was definitely going down. I looked up at the square of light above me, framing Katsumi's stunned face, and then it was gone. I'd been pulled through a panel in the floor. A pocket flashlight illuminated a familiar, cocky grin.

"Evening, detective," Kaitou Kid chuckled.

My mind spun back into darkness as he pressed the unbearable stench of chloroform to my face.


	9. Deja huh?

You know those mystery novels where the main character gets bonked over the head at some point in the story? And instantaneously solves the mystery upon waking up? Yeah, it doesn't work like that. _Unless you're the great Kudo Shinichi!_ is what I'd love to follow up that sentence with, but I really am trying to keep this as close to the truth as possible. My amazing revelation (or, lack thereof, more appropriately) is as follows.

_Ow... Head. My head hurts._ I cracked open my eyelids a sliver, rewarded with relatively non-painful light. I opened them wider about a tenth of a centimeter, and could look around me.

It was a large, circular room lined with comfortable-looking books, the kind that just sit there and wait for you to read them again and again. My library, this was my library! I was covered in a large, warm blanket, curled up in one of the armchairs. Next to me was a sidetable which held a cup of something that smelled like coffee. I reached feebly for it, my arm coming to rest on the well-padded chair. Someone placed the cup gently in my hand, and I slurped at the drink groggily.

"Thank you. Mmm."

I froze.

Who, exactly, had made the coffee?

"Like it?" Kid grinned. "I wasn't sure whether you would want cream, sugar, or anything at all, so I just made it how I usually do."

I set it back on the table. My kidnapper was leaning against a bookcase casually, and as he flipped closed _The Hound of the Baskervilles_, I almost asked him what he thought of it.

"How did you pick me?" I asked instead.

"Easy. Your shoes." He held up a pair of sneakers that looked suspiciously like mine. "They don't have a brand label; I saw that the first time we met." He smirked the Unmentionable Smile of his. "The tracers were entertaining- I hope you'll forgive me, I had to dispose of them on the way."

"Wait- The tracers were in my clothing." I found that under the blankets I was wearing a pair of silk pajamas. _I have silk pajamas?_ I wondered idly. _Surely I would never buy silk pajamas. At least not with this hideous pattern on the cloth; I hate plaid._

"Yeah, sorry. No time to cut them out, had to just ditch the whole thing if I found a bug." Kid didn't look sorry in the least.

"So I was carried halfway across Tokyo... Naked?"

"You were wearing underwear..." He gave me a defensive look, and pulled his hat over his eyes. I made a martyred face.

"The fact that you actually _checked_ my underwear is really grossing me out."

"Next time I'll make it a point just to throw _those_ out too," he scowled.

"How did you find silk pajamas? In my size? And in this garish plaid?" I tugged anxiously at a neon orange-green-and-blue sleeve, eager to get off of the subject of "next time". Admittedly, the pajamas were a poor choice of topic, but they were really hurting my eyes. "And how did you find Shinichi-nii-san's house?" I tried to sound as innocent as possible with this last line, wanting more to know how he got _in_ to my house. He gave a small, secret smile.

"It's kind of hard to miss. Besides, did you think I would go through with a heist without having a proper escape route planned?"

To be perfectly fair, it always seemed to me like he disappeared without a trace after his shenanigans, but since that was just proving his point, I settled myself into the armchair more comfortably and turned on the sarcasm. "So, mister Kid the Phantom Thief- what now? Am I to be returned within the hour, like so many of your other prizes? How about a ransom? Or are you just going to_ kill_ me."

"Nothing that melodramatic," he laughed. I got the distinct feeling that Kid was like a dog chasing cars- when and if he ever caught one, he really wouldn't know what to do with it. Well, a wolf chasing BMWs and Ferraris, but still. "First things first, your coffee is cold."

"You know I'm not going to drink it." The back of my mouth still tasted acidic from the chloroform, but he shrugged.

"I would hardly be a good host if I left you without anything at all." He set off for the kitchen.

I stuck my tongue out at the door as soon as it closed. "Host... _Bakka_, it's my house." I jumped out of the chair, ignoring the wave of nausea that throttled my brain. First things first, I had to get out of there. Fortunately, I knew the house better than he did.

Less fortunately, he had locked the doors.

Unless I was going to hide behind one of the bookshelves, there wasn't much I could do in terms of escape plans. So really all I could do was wander around wishing that I'd put windows in at some point, other than the skylight. But hey, skylights come in handy sometimes.

Especially as a way for a smallish plastic box to be strategically dropped on my head by someone standing outside. (For those of you who haven't caught on, yes, this was happening.) I looked up hastily and caught a glimpse of Haibara's brownish head. I motioned frantically for her to come down, and she shook her head calmly, throwing a folded note after the box; I opened it up as quietly as possible.

_Shut up, open box, use as instructed.  
_

I shut up and opened box. You just don't argue when someone writes it like that. Inside, I expected to find a tranquilizer watch, maybe a spare set of high-powered shoes, even a cell phone, but instead I pulled out fold after fold of...

Clothing. Regular clothing. At about the second layer, two things fell out. The first was a clear plastic case holding a capsule pill, and the second was the aforementioned instruction.

_Kudo- I'm afraid I had to make this on short notice, and the antidote will last considerably longer than you are used to. It's not yet been tested, since you are the only available subject, but you're a big boy- you can choose whether or not to use your lifeline. If you get back in one piece, make sure to tell me if the pill had any unexpected side-effects. I'm trying to cut down on the fevers, sweating, shortness of breath, etc etc that usually come along. I can't come down myself, or I would have no way of getting back up, and neither the professor nor I can hoist you up with the rope. I would have sent other supplies, but short of teleporting out of there, you've little chance of defeating Kid._

_I hope this goes without saying Kudo, but-_

_Good luck._

"What do you mean, 'only available subject'?" I muttered. With a jaunty wave in the general direction of the ceiling, I downed the pill.


	10. Cat

"Jeez, what were you doing in there? Making a fresh cup of coffee?" I must have misjudged the wait time on the antidote Haibara had packed; I was already starting to sweat.

"Yes, I needed one too. Here's yours."

"Oh, so _I_ get the warmed-up coffee." Even so, I took it, checking casually for any telltale chemical smells. He laughed.

"You must think I'm quite low if you think I would resort to that this late in the game."

"That's what this is for you?" My scowl darkened a few shades. "A hobby? You break the law so easily, yet so carefully. Everything is returned afterwards- if they ever caught you, you would be off with a song if you pleaded guilty."

"You think I don't deserve as much." There was no question in the statement. He knows me too well for that. The hundreds of ways to answer that question- this wasn't quite as straightforward as a murder case. With murder, someone is guilty, and that person is wrong. Always. In every case, that has been the truth, and will always be the truth. The one truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That's one of the reasons why the Phantom Thief confuses me. In the back of my mind, something tells me that he's not _really_ wrong. Not really. In all honesty, what has he done? Not a single theft in his repertoire goes unconsolidated, and all repaid by his hand with the same thing that he stole. But the rest of my mind sings to a different tune.

"I think you deserve every last thing that is coming to you, Kaitou Kid," I said softly. "No more or less would be fitting."

"Well put, _meitantei._" He clapped theatrically, and that unbearable grin was back.

I stifled a yelp as another spasm jerked down my spine, and told the thing in the back of my mind to shut its ugly face for ever defending this cocky bastard. I had to find an excuse to be alone, and _fast_- I really had no idea when the pill was going to take effect. Roughly... Four, five minutes, at most? If the speed at which the warning signs were coming was anything to go by, I'd estimate more around two. Not much time, anyway.

I clutched my stomach painfully.

"_Nnnkkk..._" Gagging, retching, staggering, whole nine yards. Cut down on the symptoms, she says! Kid looked more than a little bit worried after all that.

"Hey, you okay?"

A strange flash of deja-vû interrupted my soap opera, and I giddily remembered Kaito from the ferris wheel. Those two voices sounded awfully similar... No, no, that would have to wait until I _wasn't _about to spontaneously grow 10 years older. I panted something about feeling sick, and ran towards the bathroom. Here's where my knowledge of the house came in handy- I sprinted past the first door on the right, the one on the left, ah, there it was: the one that had an air conditioner vent thing in it. Of course, it was a good five feet up the wall, far too high for Edogawa Conan to reach.

But in less than a minute, I was no longer Edogawa Conan.


	11. And Bag

Kaito leaned against the open door to the kitchen. He sighed, puffing out his cheeks, and stared boredly at his watch. He got the distinct feeling that he'd been duped somehow, and Conan was in the back of an escape car laughing at Kaito's stupidity. But that wasn't _quite_ possible, since the bathroom Conan had chosen was in the middle of the house. Still...

Something moved behind him, and completely on instinct (plus the coffee he'd just finished), the thief dodged the hefty broom handle that had been aimed at his head.

"What are you doing in my house!" someone hollered at him. _My house?_ Kaito played back. _Wait... Naw, it can't be!_ Even so, he turned around to find...

...that the great detective Kudo Shinichi was making another swipe at his head.

"I've already called the police, so stop fussing- by the way, don't you have a six-year-old to be abducting?"

Oh yeah! _That's_ why he'd hesitated. Though there wasn't much room in the enclosed hallway, Kaito set off a smoke bomb (neon pink, the usual) and appeared several feet out of Shinichi's reach, conveniently in front of the bathroom Conan was supposedly in. Supposedly.

"How did you get out of that room? I must say, your knowledge of the house is extraordinary."

Kaito saw that he'd hit a nerve, though Shinichi kept reasonably calm.

"What room? If you mean my bedroom, it _is_ my house, I've got keys."

Kaito smirked, and with a casual twitch of his hand, he unlocked and opened the door next to him, revealing a distinct lack of Conan.

"I meant _that_ room, tantei-kun. If I'm correct, you haven't been sleeping in this house's bedroom for quite some time. Months, even- that's how long you've been missing, right?"

Shinichi didn't quite manage a blank look, but instead came up with something disturbingly infantile. The innocent confusion would have fit well on a child's face, but on him it just looked like someone had kicked him.

"What do you mean, Kaitou-sa... kun?

Kaito's grin widened. _And the winner is..._

"Don't be stupid, Conan, it's not like you at _all_."


	12. Sudden Bursts

**A/N: Okay, I'll admit, I made this one a tad darker, but it ends on a good note.**

I couldn't resist, really I couldn't. I mean, what would _you _do if someone caught you with that line?

"How did you find out?" We were back in the library, in armchairs just like before, and Kid smiled unbearably, making me want to punch him again. And I _could have_, too! That's self restraint, that is!

"I don't suppose you've heard of the Black Organization?"

Jeez, those guys got _around! _Not only were they a far-reaching underground criminal network, but they'd managed to screw up the lives of at least two or three people I knew by name. That takes effort! Next thing you know, Heiji would show up a six-year old. I mean, yeah, coincidence and all, but _come on! _I'll only believe _that _cock-and-bull story so long!

"Actually, yes." Nice, Kudo, veeeeery intelligent sounding. "I take it you have, too?"

"We've had our quarrels. They want something from me, and I intend to keep it from them as long as I possibly can."

"Mind telling me what that something is?" Once again, I just couldn't help myself.

"Well, first of all, I don't have it; they want me to get it for them." He leaned forward, and I could tell he was thinking this over for himself as well. "It's called the Pandora gem."

Hang on... That rang a bell. Hadn't I read something about that, in a mythology book?

"You mean the philosopher's stone?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, I guess that's another name for it." He shrugged, and I wondered how he managed to do that without strangling himself on his cape. "Anyway, the point is, that once every thirteen thousand years or so, it gives off this... Stuff... I don't really know how to explain it, I heard them described as Pandora Tears, and they-"

"-make you live forever." This sounded _exactly_ like what I'd read about the philosopher's stone; I did a report on it in middle school. Well, a presentation, actually. The centerpiece thereof was _The Philosopher's Stone in Modern __Literature,_ which, because I'd crafted said centerpiece the night before it was due, ended up being about _Fullmetal Alchemist_. The teacher was not amused.

"Exactly. Aaaand I guess someone in the BO wants to live forever, so they sent out the command for the Pandora gem. But the only problem is, it's _inside _another gem."

Oh no.

It all made sense now. Everything. He wasn't just doing this for sport- it was a life or death contest to find the ultimate prize. This was his tie to the Organization, which, ultimately, was his tie to me. It would have been so easy for him, just to give up and let the Organization have their way. No more sleepless nights, no more frantic chases, no more wondering if you're going to be alive the next morning or not. I knew those would always be there for me, as long as I lived, as long as Gin and Vermouth lived. This might never have to be his, and it hurt terribly, because now I could see a crucial difference between us. I was running for my life because I _had_ to. He had a choice, and he chose like I hoped would have. This made one thing clear, above all else...

I couldn't hate him anymore.

At that point, I had to tell him. It just wouldn't be fair, to make him tell his story and withhold mine. Every last detail- every frantic chase, every near discovery, even the number of times I'd changed back and forth. It was actually kind of sobering, hearing it all laid out like that, even if I was the one describing it. When I'd finished what little of it I understood, he nodded.

"Well. Th-that explains a lot." I could tell he was shaken, and I turned his signature grin against him.

"So did yours."

"I'm sure it did," said the person standing in the doorway.

"_Haibara?!_" I yelped, "What are you doing here?"

"I got bored," she shrugged. "Besides, if Kid had killed you, _someone_ needed to find your body. One way or another, it wouldn't hurt to come." She turned to Kid, who flinched. "And by the way, it's a bad idea to leave the front door unlocked."

"Sh-shiho?" he pronounced faintly. Call it intuition, spidey-sense, or just a plain old hunch, but I sensed another coincidence coming up. Haibara's eyes widened, and she yelped, leaping back against a wall. She pointed frantically at him, eyes flickering between the two of us. "K-Kudo, what did you _tell_ him?!"

"Not your name," I frowned. "Up until now, even _I_ didn't know that for sure. So her name's really Shiho? And on that note, how do _you_ know?"

"I... I..." For once, Kid seemed at a loss for words. Something that normally would have been a relief, but at the moment seemed very inconvenient. He gulped, apparently trying to get his thoughts in order, and didn't even register my question. "Shiho, don't you remember me?"

"I've never seen you before in my life!" she snapped. "Not in person anyway."

"But you..." Once again, words failed him. Surprisingly enough, he was _happy_, though why anybody would be happy about a wild Haibara was beyond me. He ran across the room, picked Ai up and spun her in a circle.

"_Shiho!_" he grinned, "This is _fantastic!_ I never thought I'd see you again!"

"Ka... Kai..." she stammered as something dawned on her that completely missed me. I finally lost it.

"Would somebody tell me what is going _on_ here?!" I hollered. Kid quickly put Haibara down. "You never even did that much! Every day it seems like I learn something new, something you should have told me _ages ago!_" I was now full on screaming at Haibara. "You said no more secrets, but how many things are you going to conveniently forget? Maybe you forgot that promise, too."

"Shinichi," she said quietly, "This is not the time for this. Maybe someday, yes, I will tell you everything. After everything is right again."

There was a darkly simmering quiet, two generals poised on the bloody field of dismay and anguish for a battle that was long in coming, and seemed to be so yet.

"Shiho- er, _Haibara_, was a close friend of mine," Kid explained slowly, eyes flickering between us as if trying to figure out how and to what purpose we knew each other. Good luck to him- even _I_ couldn't figure _that_ out. "We knew each other when we were kids."

"I didn't think you'd follow your father's footsteps." Haibara looked solemn. Kid froze.

"Y-you knew?" Haibara nodded, and Kid grabbed the arm of the chair to have something to strangle. The atmosphere wasn't simmering any longer- it burst into raging flame as another scar opened up. "Why didn't you tell me when you had the chance?!"

"Because I knew exactly how much you love your father," she said harshly, "and I knew I didn't want you to be hurt by the truth." She lowered her head, and I don't know if she did it on purpose or not, but either way she turned to me slightly. "And the truth _hurts_ sometimes. Sometimes it's _better_ to live in ignorance for a while, instead of having someone tell you to grow up and face the facts."

Now she was turning to me full on, her eyes full of fire and anger and...

Sadness. It was barely there, and she was completely intent on making sure I would never, ever see it, but some things are just impossible to hide. I'd seen it grow stronger every day, until it seemed like she could barely keep it concealed; she fooled everybody... Except me. I had no idea why I was the one person who could read her like an open book, but I could.

She sighed, turning away from me again. "It's late. We should go to bed."

Kid nodded, and he followed her out of the room. I stared after them incredulously as the tension just suddenly disappeared. It was as if the world had been lifted from my shoulders; I was sore, but infinitely relieved. Suddenly, the whole thing seemed terribly funny. I knew I was in shock for some reason, because it just seemed impossible to take anything serious now. The one huge insanity of the situation made itself beautifully clear to me as I jogged down the corridor after them.

"Does anyone even _care_ that I've just been kidnapped?!"


	13. Should've known this chapter was unlucky

I ended up giving them both a room, and collapsing in my own bedroom; it had been a long day. It crossed my mind to call the police- a couple times I actually got up and made for the phone- but I couldn't quite bring myself to do it. I'd already made up my mind that I had to forgive Kid now. Maybe I wouldn't in practice, but on principle it was just something I knew needed to be done. Gut instinct- gotta love it. I flipped on the TV, finding a news channel.

_"Still no sign of the missing six-year old, Edogawa Conan."_ It showed a picture of me that I recognized as having been photoshopped out of a group shot with the Detective Boys. Ayumi's hand was still gripping my shoulder. Apparently, someone did care I was gone._ "He disappeared from police custody approximately two hours ago, after a letter was sent by Kaitou Kid claiming that he would kidnap the boy. Anyone who has seen Kid or Edogawa Conan is encouraged to call the number on the screen. Next up: what Edogawa's close friends the Mouris have to say about the matter."_ It cut to a picture of Ran, who had very obviously been crying; I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. This was my fault, and I knew it.

_"Wherever you are, Conan, I just hope you're okay! Please, please be oka-"_

I turned it off, feeling empty and cold. It hurt, so, so much making her feel like this, but I couldn't do anything about it until the Antidote wore off. _If_ it wore off. Haibara said it would last longer. Maybe that meant it was permanent? At that point I was just too tired to care.

I closed my eyes, and the next thing I remember was something moving outside my window, waking me up. I rolled over, falling out of bed (long limbs would take some getting used to again), and muttering a string of creative curses (creative for two in the morning, at least). Since all presumed stealth had been abandoned, I simply stumbled across the room and peered through the glass. Nothing moved in the darkness, and for a moment I could tell myself that it had all been my imagination, that there was nothing lurking outside, and that no, things _didn't _go bump in the night. Besides, it wasn't even dawn yet, and I really wanted to get back to-

When I heard the noise _again_, I stopped kidding myself and woke Haibara.

"Oi-" I poked her in the side, and her eyes snapped open, but other than that she didn't move.

"Yes?" Her voice was measured, and I could tell she wanted to smack me in the face.

"Something outside." I rubbed my eyes, feeling the tiredness in my voice. She slumped forward and yawned her way out of bed, eyes slowly traveling from my knees to somewhere around my nose.

"You're tall," she stated sleepily, weaving out towards the front room.

"And you're short," I walked beside her, keeping pace easily. "Come to think of it, I've never seen you normal."

"There's a reason for that; you think I'm going to risk my life for a few feet of bone and muscle tissue?"

"Sometimes I wonder how dedicated you are to this," I said drily. I realized that she was opening the door to Kid's room, and reached out a second too late to stop her. She stumbled inside, went up to Kid, and clonked him on the head.

"Oww! I'm up, I'm up!" he yelped.

"You shouldn't sleep in that suit, it will be disgusting by tomorrow morning," she crossed her arms at him. "And I don't even want to _know_ how you kept the hat on." He rolled his eyes.

"Oh please, what else am I supposed to wear? I still have a secret identity, you know. Now, tell me why you woke me up."

"Other than to dispute your fashion sense? Kudo thinks he heard something." She jerked her head at me noncommittally, and I scowled.

"I don't _think_ I heard something, I _know_ I heard something; and I saw it, too. There's somebody out there, and I want to know who it is."

Kid's eyes narrowed. I belatedly realized that in his eyes this might all be an elaborate trap to lure him into the clutches of the police, so I gave him a sardonic look.

"If it's any consolation, I'll go first."

He grinned, and gestured for the door. "Go for it."

Have you ever gotten the feeling that you're in a story? And that story is narrated in the third-person? Well, that's about what it felt like for the next five minutes; I swear, I could literally picture myself, from a bird's-eye view, playing out the next scene.

Anyway, here's what happened.

I made my way slowly across the grass, feeling the premature dew seep in through my socks. Haibara had, imaginatively, packed me my school uniform, and I was beginning to regret leaving the jacket behind. Right in front of me was a big white van, which should have sent my "Oh look, a pedophile" sensors into overdrive. But no, being the _supreme_ idiot that I am, what did I do? Walked around to the back of the truck, of course! What, exactly, I intended to _do_ if I _found_ anybody there is beyond me. Either way, I did try and peek into the car, and I did get hit on the head and pulled into the already moving van, and I most certainly did get kidnapped.

Again.


	14. And in box number 3

**A/N: For sake of convenience I'm switching to 3rd person now. Just giving a heads up. And in exchange for posting a day late, I'm also giving you a grand total of THREE chapters! :D (Albeit, one of them is shorter than this A/N, but...)**

Shinichi didn't open his eyes. If they knew he was awake, then they knew he was awake, but if they didn't then he wanted to preserve that luxury as long as he could.

"Finally, he's up."

Damn.

"What do you want?" Shinichi's voice was deathly quiet, and he opened his eyes to see a small circle of yellowed light surrounding him. He didn't move to look, but he pictured a bare lightbulb above his head. In the shadows, he could barely make out two silhouettes.

"It's not what we want that is the concern," a soft voice chuckled. Shinichi didn't recognize that one; it had a British accent, and so couldn't be Vodka, and was too rough to be Gin. "But what you are going to give us. You have already met my comrade, yes?"

"Vermouth," Shinichi nodded a greeting to the smaller of the silhouettes. Even in the darkness, he could see her grin.

"How's my favorite little man, then?" Vermouth stepped into the light and ruffled Shinichi's hair.

"I should be so lucky," he grimaced.

"Oh, come now, no need to be so theatrical."

"You're one to talk," Shinichi glared. Vermouth leaned back toward the large silhouette.

"So, Campari, what are we going to do with him? Just killing him would be an easy solution."

"But look at the talent we would be wasting." A man, apparently Campari, stepped into view. He was tall, handsome, with feathery blonde hair, and bright blue eyes framed with smile lines. Shinichi was immediately reminded of Hakuba, or maybe Dr. Araide. Campari smiled. "Just think of how useful he would be."

"Then how are we to go about it? The usual process?"

"No, I think we'll do something special. After all, he is the perfect subject."

"Right, I'd forgotten," Vermouth rolled her eyes. "Seven. One of the new techniques, then?"

"Exactly my idea."

"And if he dies, then that's just one less thing to worry about."

"You know," Shinichi swallowed, trying to conceal his growing terror, "It kind of defeats the purpose, you talking about all of this right in front of me."

"Oh, don't worry." Vermouth pulled out a syringe, and Shinichi went numb so quickly he didn't even feel the needle go in. He still heard the last cold sentence before his world disappeared. "One way or another, you won't remember."


	15. Broken Things

**A/N: I know, I know, sucky ending, but bear with it, I do explain eventually.**

Kaito stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes wearily. He'd changed into his spare set of clothing, which consisted of jeans and a T-shirt; Haibara already knew who he was, and nobody else was around.

"Shiho..."

"Yes?" The solemn girl was still at work on the computer, the screen's aqua glow the only lighting in the room.

"It's been two days."

"And?"

"You need to _sleep_, Shiho." He attempted to pick her up, and she quickly grabbed her laptop, clutching it to her chest.

"Is Gin sleeping?" she snarled, trying to squirm out of Kaito's grasp, "Is Vermouth sleeping? No! And if Kudo's asleep, then he's _never waking up!_" Her voice broke, and Kaito felt tears brushing his hand. "And I can't be responsible for that."

"You can't be responsible for your _own_ death either-" Kaito received a sharp little fist in his eye as Haibara doubled her efforts, "-and that's what's going to happen if you don't get to sleep."

With her last burst of energy, the girl managed to hit Kaito over the head with her computer, then finally collapsed in exhaustion. Kaito sighed, gently setting Haibara down on the couch. She was just as he'd remembered: stubborn as ever, and even prettier. He sat down heavily at the kitchen table, rubbing his eyes.

"Who knew babysitting would be this hard..."

"I heard that," Haibara muttered. She opened an eye and stuck out her tongue at Kaito before falling back asleep. The magician stared for a moment, and shook his head.

"Some things never change," he smiled. Seeing the girl again brought back memories- old ones, and not necessarily pleasant, either. His eyes fluttered, closed, and abruptly he was somewhere else.

A cold, stiff breeze ruffled Kaito's hair, like a stranger trying to comfort him. His dark suit was starched and uncomfortable, falling along his frame at all the wrong angles, and his shoes felt tight and sweaty. The grass surrounding the raw wound of his father's grave seemed a sick gray-green, cluttered with weeds but no flowers. Well, almost none; the lilies in his hand were bleeding sour green blood over his clutching fingers, which chafed and bruised the tender plants. It seemed silly to offer such ruined things at a funeral. Maybe he would just hold them. Forever.

"I know," His voice was thick with carefully hidden tears, and he smiled hopelessly. "I know you would have wanted me to say something today. Maybe right after Mom said how much she loved you. But it just felt wrong, with all those people there. Cousins and aunts and great-grandparents I've never met; I don't want to waste my efforts on them when I can tell you like this. Just the two of us. Like-" He was crying freely now, tears trickling down and staining the lilies further, "Like we used to talk. Dad..." He knelt in front of the grave, finally letting the flowers slip from his hand.

"I miss you. I wish you could have said goodbye. I wish you could still be here. I wish- a lot of things. But right now, what I want you to hear, if it could only be one thing...

"I love you, Dad."

He got to his feet slowly, feeling a deep ache in every one of his bones. He left the lilies on the grave and brushed a thin cover of dirt over them.

"He loved you, too, you know," Shiho said quietly. Kaito turned, and saw her staring sadly at him, the wind billowing under her little black dress.

"When did you get back?" Kaito was eager for a distraction, any distraction.

"Just now. It seems I missed what I came for, though. The service was over by the time I arrived."

"You didn't come just for that. You barely know my dad."

"Actually, I only heard about it on the flight in. I wish now that I'd told you earlier what I have to say now." She stood silent for a few seconds, reading the terribly final words on the tombstone, and about to say a few herself.

"I came to tell you goodbye."

Kaito stared. "Goodbye? You just got here."

"No, Kaito, I mean goodbye forever. Once I get on that plane, I'm not coming back."

"W-what?" Kaito looked at her blankly, what little feeling left in him draining sickeningly into the hard, greedy earth. "Shiho, of course you are! You come over every Christmas!"

"Not anymore. Kaito..." She bit her lip, and her eyes quivered. "I can't stay here. And I can't tell you why. Someday I hope you'll understand, but right now... Right now I have to leave."

Years passed.

He called her once, twice, a dozen times. The responses were always civil, detached, and curt. Five years later, he found out why.

Shiho had a boyfriend.

Kaito opened his eyes. He did not cry. He had worked very, very hard for many, many years to make sure he never, ever cried. He did, however, close his eyes again, falling into a practiced sort of trance which was only broken by one straggling thought.

_She never told me who he was..._

He woke from his stupor to hear someone moving through the house.

Kaito instantly tensed, recognizing the barely audible sounds of someone trying to conceal their actions. He'd gone through those motions hundreds of times, and did so again to creep towards the noises. Kaito cocked his head, feeling mildly stupid at doing so.

The stranger was working their way slowly through the corridors, looking into each room and leaving it as it had been. As if they were searching for something they expected to be in plain sight...

Some_one_.

Kaito's eyes widened. It was _them_, he was sure of it! Not content with just Kudo, the Black Organization was out to find the rest of the people who knew the secret of Haibara's apotoxin. A smile flashed across his face.

But he'd dealt with things like this before. Simply grab Haibara and make a run for it- child's play. Quite literally, in Ai's case. If worst came to worst, they could always masquerade as Ran and Conan, since nobody knew Conan was missing yet. Yeah... Yeah, this would work!

Kaito took three steps towards Haibara...

And stopped.

Surely it wouldn't hurt... Just to see who it was? If they didn't see him, he would be fine. Surely. And they _wouldn't_ see him- he was the great Kaitou Kid! _No one_ saw him when he didn't want them to! Just a quick look, then up and away.

Satisfied, he silently crept back to the intruder. He had less distance to walk now, the other person had made headway, too. There was a bend in the passageway ahead- Kaito put his back to the wall and leaned ever so slightly forward, just enough to see. His eyes widened, and he froze instantly. No... It couldn't be.

The person in front of him paused, a smile spreading lazily through his expression. He stood facing Kaito, lightly creasing his new-looking black suit.

"I've been expecting you," he said. You just know you're in for it when someone says that to you. Kaito bit his lip, and instantly changed into his Kaitou Kid ensemble; the least he could do was salvage some panache. Tugging at the brim of his hat and pasting on a grin that he hoped didn't look as fake as it felt, he stepped out to greet his rival.

"I wish I could say the same," Kaito chuckled.

"I bet you do." Wrong, _wrong_, it was all wrong- Kaito almost flinched at the sardonic tone he had never before heard from that familiar voice. Teasing, angry, sad, frantic, yes yes and yes, but never this horrible antagonistic drawl. "I'd apologize, but I'm not sorry- my only regret is that they'd prefer you alive."

"Lucky me," Kaito breathed. He could barely muster the courage for sarcasm in the face of something this blatantly scary, and he couldn't even manage a laugh.

"So," Shinichi Kudo smiled coldly, "You can come with me in peace..." He slowly drew a handgun and pointed it squarely at Kaito's head, "...or in pieces."

"You're going to need quite a body bag, to fit his head," an irate Haibara said, walking up behind Kaito.

"Sherry," the not-Shinichi said coolly, "Shouldn't you be asleep? It's _much_ past your bedtime."

Haibara took a step back, as if Shinichi had kicked her. Her voice was somewhere in between crying and unconsolable rage.

"Shinichi... W-why did you call me that? I might as well call you Gin."

"Close," someone else said, walking up confidently behind Shinichi, "But no cigar." The woman put her hand gently- or not so gently- behind Shinichi's neck, and he fell to the ground. Haibara looked like she wanted to scream.

"Vermouth," she gulped. The woman smiled and nodded.

"And this young man, I'm afraid, can't be called Shinichi."

"What do you mean?" Kaito asked suspiciously, "He looks an awful lot like Kudo to me..."

"Yes, _looks_ being the operative word," Vermouth smiled knowingly. "He can _look_ like anything he wants, but it's the person that counts. It's the _person_ that merits the name. We know that from experience, don't we Sherry?" Haibara flinched again, but Vermouth only chuckled. "You've done remarkably well, disguising yourself and poor Kudo here for as long as you have. But the game is through; we have him taken care of, so all that's left is getting you out of the picture. I'd intended to let Kudo take care of that, but two on one is a little much for his first mission. Here on out, it's simple: I get the warm fuzzies from killing you, he gets partial credit, and life continues as normal."

"How about _not_." In a flash, Kaito had filled the hallway with acrid pink smoke. Haibara whirled around, squinting against the thick vapor. She couldn't see, couldn't feel, couldn't breathe. Finally, a hand closed around her mouth, then her waist, and she felt someone's breath against her ear. Her blood ran cold as she prepared to feel the cold sting of gunmetal against her skin. It would only hurt for a moment...

"Don't say a word," Kaito whispered, "Be very, very still. I want you to do two things: first, wrap your arms around my neck so you don't fall."

She did, wondering why it felt so very good to be hugged right then.

"Second... Hang on tight!" And suddenly, they were flying, or going so fast they might have been. Haibara realized that Kaito had pulled them into a ventilation shaft, and was scooting them forward as fast as he could. Right turns, left turns, climbs and falls, all whooshed past in a blur of metal until they were under the stars again. Haibara took a deep breath of clean, fresh, two-in-the-morning air as Kaito easily switched to his glider and swooped across the rooftops.

"What do you think she meant?" Kaito asked quietly, "About Kudo, I mean."

"Looks the same... But isn't..." Haibara said to herself. After a few seconds, she nodded grimly. "I think I know what happened."

Kaito waited as Haibara collected her thoughts. She finally turned around so she was partly facing him. Her eyes looked pained, like she'd just been told of her best friend's funeral.

"He was brainwashed."


	16. A Boy by Any Other Name

**AN: Painfully short, but I had to introduce his new name _somehow_. Nothing really happens in this chapter except for his name. So... So there.**

Brainwashed he might have been, but when Shinichi woke up, he was _not_ happy.

"Why did you stop me?" he snarled at Vermouth. He was sitting in the passenger seat of a surveillance van, which was heading back to their temporary base in hopes of tracking Kid and Haibara on the radar. Vermouth chuckled.

"Because this if your first mission, Merlot. Surely you can't expect me to let those hyenas at HQ tear you apart if you fail? Normally I wouldn't be bothering, but..." She ruffled Shinichi's hair. "You're special to me, cool guy."

Shinichi turned to the window. "Yeah, well, I won't be able to finish until you _let_ me. No more intervention."

"Trust me," Vermouth smiled coldly, "The last thing I want to do is deprive you of this."


	17. Starring Our Special Guest

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

"100%. No one would think to look for us here."

"Famous last words, Kaito, famous last words..."

"Aww, don't knock it, it got us this far, didn't it? If they have some kind of tracer on us, there are too many people for it to be accurate. Radar's going to be about as useful as a snorkel in an airplane, and we'll even change costumes every half hour or so if you're feeling particularly paranoid."

"You really are terrible at metaphors, you know that?"

"Why, thank you. Ready?"

"No. You?"

"Nah."

"Let's go then."

Ran and Ayumi walked calmly out of one of the restrooms in Tropical Land. No one had seen them go in, but then, no one had really been watching. If one just happened to know both of them, one might notice that Ayumi was a bit too somber to be Ayumi, and Ran was acting rather jittery.

"So how do you know that Shinichi's brainwashed?" Ran asked under her breath, blinking against the glaring carny lights.

"Well, he didn't seem to know us, at least not like Shinichi would," Ayumi stared into the distance, completely failing to look bright and chipper. "I could see in his face that he only knew us from case files. And if he'd simply defected to their side, something highly unlikely in Kudo-kun's case, there is something deep in our hearts that rebels against hurting friends."

"Yeah?" Ran looked down at her companion. "I really hope that's true, Shiho." He stared up at the starry sky, lost in thought for a moment. "I really, really hope that's true."

They stopped at a sweets booth and sat down at a table with gum under the seats.

"Any idea how we're going to find him?" Kaito twirled his strawberry ice cream bar on its popsicle stick idly.

"Ugh, you got me chocolate," Haibara made a face.

"W-what's wrong with chocolate?" Kaito said defensively. He rather liked chocolate, though not as much as strawberry.

"It's just so... I don't know, _chocolatey!_"

"That's why it is, by definition, chocolate!"

"Which is why, by definition, I don't like it." Even so, Haibara began licking off the sugary ooze that was covering her fingers.

"You don't get uptight very easily, do you?"

"No, why? I think this is a perfectly acceptable situation."

"Really. O-okay, let's recap." Kaito began counting on his fingers. "One: Edogawa Conan is supposedly missing, and there's a manhunt going on with my head as the target."

"Eh."

"Two: We're currently on the run from the Black Organization."

"So what else is new?"

"Three: Kudo is friggin' _evil!_"

"Figured that out all on your own, did you?"

Kaito was running out of ideas. "Four: We don't know when the Antidote you gave him is going to wear off."

"Might be problematic, but at least it would be harder for him to kill us."

"Five- _you're dripping ice cream on me!!!!!_"

"Yes I am." Haibara handed Kaito a napkin, which he wrapped around the girl's ice cream.

"Why are you so calm?!" Kaito tried very hard to keep his voice down, at least to avoid passersby staring at him. Her. "For all we know, Kudo could be about to walk up to us right now!"

"You say that as if it's a bad thing." Heiji Hattori pulled up a chair to the table, staring squarely at Kaito. "I take it you're not Ran?"

"Not last I checked."

"Right. She's Ai-chan then?" He pointed at Haibara, who raised an eyebrow at him.

"Chan?"

"Oh, sorry, Ai-_sama_."

"Better. What took you so long?"

"Eh, had a bit of trouble with Kazuha," Heiji grimaced, "She wanted to go on TV with Ran, but they wouldn't let her. I managed to get her away, but... Let's just say you owe me one."

"Here, you can have my ice cream." Haibara handed him the soggy dessert.

"Ooh, chocolate- thanks."

"Who is this?" Kaito tried very, very hard to stay calm while asking Haibara this, but it was an effort.

"Oh, you don't know him? Well, then I have some introductions to make. This is Heiji Hattori, the Great Detective of the West-" she looked expectantly at Heiji.

"Yo."

"-Heiji, this is 1412, Kid the Phantom Thief, the infamous Kaitou Kid." She pronounced the last two words as if translating them from a primitive yet difficult language. "He also lost to me in the International Badminton championship, in case you wanted to know."

"I still say you cheated," Kaito stuck his tongue out at Haibara, who blew him a raspberry.

"You know, I could turn you in right now." Heiji's eyes narrowed, and Kaito could see that their truce was going to be paper thin. He would have to be extremely careful.

Careful? Not a chance.

"Look around you," Kaito grinned smugly, luxuriating in finally being able to show off. "Hundreds of people, all waiting to be my disguise. This kind of setting is practically tailored to my expertise. You can't possibly stop every single person to check for tickets, and guards don't _need_ tickets. For all you know, I could be one of the people searching for Kaitou Kid. For all the guards know..." His voice suddenly changed- "I could be you." Heiji paled at the sound of his voice coming from "Ran", and Kaito switched back. "So no, you couldn't turn me in right now."

Heiji smiled thinly. "I can see we're gonna get along ve-ery well."

"Indeed we are."

"Are we through?" Haibara asked drily. "I've had enough macho posturing for one day, thank you. Heiji, you said you could help find Kudo."

"I said I _would_ help," Heiji fidgeted, "Not that I _could_. Lemme hear what happened first."

Haibara turned to Kaito.

"You were there longer, you know it better than I do."

"Um. Okay," Kaito gulped. "Well, it started when I found out that the Brick Organization-"

"Black Organization!" Haibara hissed. Kaito nodded.

"Sorry, still new to- wait, what?

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, it's just... Tommy Lee Jones and Eddie Murphy-"

"That's Men in Black, you idiot!"

"Oh. Sorry. So yeah, they were going to kill Shinichi for some reason, and long story short I kidnapped him, but they kidnapped him back. So now he's brainwashed to be totally psycho 'n all, aaand... Yeah. That's pretty much it." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Oh yeah, and I know Haibara from when we were kids. All make sense?"

Heiji's look of utter confusion would have put professional actors to shame. "That's about as clear as mud, but I think I get the gist of it." His next look was smug enough to put _Haibara_ to shame. "Basically, you guys're in way over your heads, an' you need my help. Am I right?"

Kaito smiled thinly. "She won't admit it, but yes." Heiji laughed.

"That sounds just like the little blondie. Well, I can't promise this'll work, but... You said you visited the Black Organization HQ, right?" Kaito nodded, and Heiji continued. "Ya think you can remember how to get to it again?" Kaito hesitated, and nodded again. Heiji grinned. "Okay, then. It's dangerous, complicated, not quite finished yet, and Kid, I'm going to need your help with a lot of it, but I think I just might have a plan."


	18. For here, or to go?

**A/N: Undeniable fluff, yes, but the next one is far more plot-related. Don't skip this though, it does come in later.**

"Are you kidding me?" Merlot gave Vermouth an incredulous look. "Stopping for food! Didn't you pack something?"

"Who do you think I am, your mother?" Vermouth smirked. "This is as much a test as anything else. If one cannot blend, then one cannot keep cover. And if one cannot keep cover, than one is dead."

Merlot scowled. "Fine. I'll take a BLT, without mayonnaise."

"No mayonnaise? Why in the world don't you want mayonnaise?"

"Because I don't like mayonnaise!" Merlot snapped, "Do I need to give you a list of reasons? A petition? You know what- how about you tell me what _you_ want, and _I'll_ get the sandwiches."

"You're awfully argumentative."

"Your face is argumentative."

"This is about Sherry and Kid, is it?"

"No!"

"Then what is it?"

"Nothing! I'm just fine!"

"C'mon..." she put her arm around the boy's shoulders. "Tell me. I promise, you'll feel better."

Merlot sighed. "Well... Partly. It's _partly_ Sherry and Kid. I wish I'd gotten that right on my first try. And also..."

"Yes?"

"Nah, forget it, it's nothing."

"Nothing is _ever_ nothing. Tell me!"

"It's just sort of a vague... Feeling. I feel like I'm doing something wrong, constantly, like I've messed up so big that I can't even comprehend what exactly I've messed up." He shook his head, laughing softly at himself. He glanced over at Vermouth, a wry little smile crossing his face. "So, what kind of sandwich did you say you wanted?"

"Turkey with provolone cheese!" Vermouth said sweetly. "Without tomatoes."

Merlot laughed, getting out of the van. Just before he closed the door, he turned back to his supervisor.

"Why in the world don't you want tomatoes?"

Vermouth chuckled. "Fiery little thing..." She got out her cell phone and dialed in a phone number, listening patiently to the dial tone.

"_Yes_?"

"Campari."

"_Vermouth. How goes it?_"

"I thought you might want to hear the latest status report on Kudo."

"_I suppose something happened?_"

"He's having misgivings about the job; it's as if he knows deep down that Shinichi doesn't want to do this, even if Merlot does."

"_Interesting. It could lead to schizophrenia. Any mood swings?_"

"You've no idea," Vermouth looked out the tinted window, seeing Merlot come out the front door. "Be quick, he's on his way back."

"_The mood swings might be his hormones interfering- he picked a difficult age to be an annoyance at. It's perfectly normal, but if it continues, give him some mild valium and continue on your way. The pill in question should be in the top right corner of the box._"

"Noted. Thank you, Campari."

"_Always glad to help, old friend._"

Vermouth flipped the phone closed and took her sandwich from Merlot as he opened the door.

"They didn't have bacon today, so I got chicken pesto," he explained, catching Vermouth's dubious look at his green-speckled sandwich.

They unwrapped their sandwiches in silence, not really paying attention to one another, but not actively ignoring the other either. Two bites into his lunch, Merlot's eyes widened and he started coughing.

"What? What is it?" Vermouth grabbed him in a panic. Merlot shook his head and finally managed to get a breath.

"Sandwich- has- _garlii-i-i-ic..._" he sputtered. Vermouth blinked, and laughed loudly.

"You little _brat_, I thought you were choking! All that over a little garlic!"

"Yeah, well," Merlot said hoarsely, "I hope you don't throw such a fit over the tomatoes in yours."


	19. 1800BLUFF

**A/N: The prize is stolen again... And please tell me you get the title. Please. You don't even have to think it's funny, just... Yeah.  
**

Vermouth nodded to the guard as she and her new partner entered Division 7b. The division's security was slightly heightened, possibly because someone unauthorized had been browsing the computers inside. It might also have been because two dangerous targets were wandering the streets, and all the divisions in the area they were thought to be in had heightened security. In either case, the guard waved them in.

"So, how's he doing?" the guard nodded at Merlot.

"I've seen better," Vermouth sighed resignedly, "But he'll learn fast, won't you?"

Merlot made a mildly reproachful face, as if he would have liked to question Vermouth's "better", but simply shrugged. Vermouth laughed, and they headed inside. The guard stopped Merlot on the way in.

"Sorry, standard procedure- what's in the duffel bag?"

"Stuff," Merlot stated drily. "Surveillance stuff. Camera stuff. Mic stuff. Need I go on?"

"Now, now," Vermouth scolded, "No need to be brusque just because you've had a bad day. Let the man do his job, and maybe I'll let you do yours." She turned to the guard. "The code is _martini_, and my access number is XX779."

Merlot rolled his eyes, and the two ventured farther into the building. The twists and turns of silvery hallways reminded Merlot somewhat of a spaceship, and he entertained the idea of the entire compound simply taking off right there and then, sailing beyond the stars.

The guard's imagination wasn't quite so vivid- in fact, he was so terribly bored that he didn't even notice when Vermouth and Merlot entered the building... again.

"So where, exactly, are we going now?" Merlot asked.

"Campari. You need a checkup."

"Aww, really? That guy's creepy, he looks at me like I'm a hamburger or something."

"Campari is very interested in you; you've come so far, and only 17!"

"Don't say it like that," Merlot smiled, "You've helped me a lot. I didn't remember anything after the accident, you had to teach me all over again!"

"Yes... But it takes quite a prodigy to be willing to learn."

The pair stopped dead in their tracks, faced with two other people. One was holding the other roughly by the collar, but it was strange; they seemed to be exactly the same person.

"Then you, my dear, are frankly slow," the second Merlot smirked.

"Wha..." Vermouth's eyes widened, flickering between the Merlot next to her, the Merlot in front of her, and the third Merlot that the second teenager was holding. Merlot 3 looked like a regular mess; a split lip, a bloody nose, and his jacket was missing. Other than that, the three were practically identical, with even matching outfits. Merlot 2 chuckled.

"It was really quite easy to replace Kudo with my partner while he was getting you lunch," Merlot 2 nodded to Merlot 1 who was still looking very, very confused. "We're very grateful for this opportunity to make a map of the place; you practically gave him a tour, just now. But I'm afraid we may have worn out our welcome, and it is time to take our leave."

"Not yet it isn't!" Vermouth snarled. She snapped open a hidden panel in the wall next to her and pressed the large, important-looking button concealed within.

_"Attention,"_ the address system said politely, _"Center doors are now closing. All personnel within the main compound are now confined to this area until further notice. Attention. Center doors..."_

"Oh, so that's how it's going to be," Merlot 2 grinned. In a flash of pink smoke, all three Merlots disappeared. Vermouth coughed, swearing under her breath, and stared surprisedly at the floor.

There was a large, friendly arrow pointing further into the building. It was labeled _Kudo!_ above a signature Kaito Kid smiley face.

"Damn you," Vermouth scowled, following the direction.

When Merlot woke up, he found that his hands were tied behind his back. Oddly, this was a familiar feeling, though he didn't like it.

"Oi, he's coming around," said Merlot 3. Upon further inspection, this Merlot had a slightly more gravelly voice than Merlot himself did, along with some rather impressive fake bloodstains in his suit. Merlot scowled at the rough-sounding impersonator.

"How in your right mind do you expect to get away with this? Vermouth will come find me, and _you_ will both be dead. You might as well untie me now and shoot yourselves to save her some trouble."

"But that is exactly the point, Shinichi-kun," came a voice from the shadows. It was smooth and clear, like polished crystal, and sounded at once remarkably reasonable and just a little bit insane. Merlot 2 stepped forward after it, almost as an afterthought. "I have every notion of letting your delightful mentor find us. As for whether she will kill us or not, well-" He sat down to one side of the original Merlot. "We shall see in a moment, now won't we?"

"You... _want_ her to come?" Merlot looked over incredulously at his double, and finally laughed. "Ohhh, I see what your plan is. All right. Let's take this little gamble of yours. I'll even play along, to a point, seeing as you seem to hold the most important card here: me. Between the three of us, Vermouth can find the real one easily. She's the master of disguise, more so than you yourself, Kaitou Kid." He leaned back against the column he was tied to and smiled. "We shall see, indeed."

Vermouth waited outside the room long enough to stop panting, and long enough to read the tidy piece of paper taped to the door in front of her.

_I welcome you to a wine tasting- three reds await your delicate palette, if you will but bring the white. One shall be tested, one shall be emptied, and one shall drink the other. Open the doors of death, and lead the darkest draught to truth._

_Disrespectfully,_

_Kaitou Kid._

"Cheh- Shoddy. You can tell he didn't have much time to write," Vermouth murmured to herself. Knowing it would be locked, she tried the door in front of her; when it remained solidly closed, the agent pressed a button embedded in her blouse.

_Center doors opening. Center doors opening. Center doors..._

The door opened of its own accord.

"_Congratulations, Vermouth,"_ said a mysterious voice. It was coming from a tape recorder laid out neatly on the floor. "_For finding the ante point. I hope you would not be against a little game, if I might impose the other team upon you. You will see that there are three of the same person before you- three Merlots. Your task is to find which one is correct. The real one knows not to cheat, or you will find yourself sorely worse off than you began. I would wish you good luck, but since I am fighting against you, I will simply say- May the best win._"

The tape cut out, and Vermouth stared at the three Merlots. They were tied to a large cement column in the middle of the room (an obsolete water main she had been meaning to get rid of for some time), each at least partially facing her. They stared at her calmly, daring her to pick them as the real one.

"So, I don't suppose there's any chance of you telling me outright who's Merlot?" she smiled frostily. There was silence. "No? Well, then perhaps a game _is_ in order." She knelt down beside the one on the left, pinching his cheek; she was rewarded with a mask to pull off of the captive, revealing a vaguely familiar tanned face, and she grinned. "Well, thus far I am winning. It can't be all that hard, now can it?" She proceeded with this tactic on the next two, observing their disgruntled winces as she caught nothing but skin. "Hmmm... Well, then I suppose you are both Merlot."

They looked up at her in surprise.

"Well, I can't tell which one is which like that- I'll have to let both of you go." There was an edge to her voice that hinted she had no intention of doing anything of the sort, but she untied the middle and right Merlots, helping them to their feet. "Now, you have your guns?"

Both pulled out a handgun of seemingly the exact same caliber.

"Good." She turned to the Merlot who had been in the middle, and pointed to the one who had been on the left. It was very distinctly Heiji, to those who knew him. "Now, Merlot, I just want you to carry out this one simple task for me- shoot him."

"Ah..." his eyes widened.

"Go ahead." Heiji's smile was slightly sad and very courageous. Merlot pointed the gun, and stared into his former impersonator's calm brown eyes.

His friend's eyes.

"I... I c-can't," his voice broke halfway through the word, and it seemed to surprise him more than anyone else.

"Oh, too bad, Kaitou Kid," Vermouth grinned savagely, pulling the gun from the teenager's hand. She turned triumphantly to the final Merlot. "So, if you are the real one, then shoot them."

"Disrespectfully," he pointed the gun squarely at Vermouth's head, "No."

An inflatable boxing glove erupted from the shaft and smacked her in the head. This dazed her for a moment, but she suddenly staggered, finally falling to the ground. Behind her was a smallish 8 year old, with a wristwatch also pointed at Vermouth.

"Do you have to be quite so dramatic about it?" Haibara asked Kaito drily.


	20. Obligatory chase scene

**A/N: Okay, I'll admit it, this chapter was just me having fun. And an excuse to get them out of the building.**

"We need a car! Now!" Kaito gritted his teeth. They had knocked Shinichi out and made a dash for the only way out that wasn't swarming with guards- the garage. Heiji looked around, hefting Shinichi a little higher on his shoulders.

"Take your pick! How about the hybrid over there?"

"No," Haibara said darkly, "I want the porsche." Heiji gave her an exasperated look.

"Blondie, this is no time to be picky about-"

"Gin's porsche 356A, it's right there. Kaito, don't tell me you've never wanted to drive a porsche before."

He stared in shock at the beautiful car.

"Heiji, get in the passenger seat. Shiho, sit on his lap. I think we're going to have to put Kudo in the trunk."

"You've gotta be kiddin' me..." Heiji looked dumbstruck. Even so, they were all seated (or, in Shinichi's case, curled up) in the car in a few minutes.

"Can you drive?" Haibara asked skeptically.

"Better than you can," Kaito boasted.

"Answer the question, Kuroba."

"Sure I can drive! I mean, I've played driving games before and stuff. Grand Theft Auto."

"Of course, you'd pick the one driving game related with stealing..."

"Just let me drive!"

The car grated out of the parking spot, clattering around the garage, and the two passengers scrabbled for their shared seatbelt.

"Parking brake, parking brake!"

_Ka-THWACK!_

"Don't forget the clutch!"

_SCREEEEEE!_

"The brake is on the _left_, the _left!_"

"OH MY GOD, WE'RE GOING TO DIIIIIIIIE!" Shinichi screamed from the trunk.

"Shut up!" Heiji, Haibara, and Kaito hollered in unison.

"Looks like we've got company!" Kaito barely kept in front of the three sleek sports cars that careened out after him.

"Going left!" Heiji yanked the steering wheel out of Kaito's grasp, spinning them wildly to the right.

"Who's left is that, you lunatic!" Kaito screamed.

"It's classic misdirection!"

"Just let me drive!"

"No! You drive like an old lady!"

"I'm over 100 mph, bakka! If you don't like it, _you_ drive!"

"Fine! Move!" They switched places as Haibara hung out the window and looked back at the other cars.

"They're gaining on us! Do something, now!"

"_Yaaaaaah!_" Heiji cackled, slamming on the gas pedal.

_SCREEEEEEECRASHBANGSLLLLLAMBIDDABIDDABIDDABIDDA_

"Slow down!" Haibara wailed.

"NEVER!"

"Stop hitting buildings!"

"Okay, maybe I'll do _that_."

"Uh, guys?" Kaito tugged on Heiji's sleeve weakly. "I think we missed an invitation or two."

Before them was an absolutely mammoth line of slick black cars, which all seemed to be from the Organization. Heiji just revved the engine.

"Then let's crash the party!"


	21. Lost Cause

**A/N: Alrighty, here it is; this is one of the first bits I thought up, though it ended differently each time I thought it over again.**

Heiji groaned. There wasn't a single part of him that didn't hurt, varying in degrees from bruises to actual cuts and scrapes.

"Well, the hero awakens." Haibara waved her hand over his eyes, and he sat up.

"What happened?"

"You don't remember? Frankly, you saved our lives. If you hadn't turned before the cars behind could cut us off, we would have been trapped. You're quite a driver, for a second class detective."

"Ouch," Heiji grinned.

"Although at this rate, you're looking to be without competition," Haibara said quietly.

Heiji's heart went cold.

"Where is he?"

"In the basement, Kaito's with him. I meant to come get you- you're the one he's been asking for."

"Kudo's been asking for me?" Heiji repeated quizzically. "Why?"

"Won't say. Just keeps saying _I want the other one, let me talk to __**him**__._"

Heiji bit his lip.

"I'll go see him."

Somehow, the halls seemed terribly empty. Heiji had only been to Shinichi's house for a party or two, invited by a friend of a friend to catch a glimpse of his famous rival. Now, the carpet made a soft noise under his shoes until he reached the stairs down. Voices wafted up through the passage.

_"How about Sonoko? Sonoko Suzuki, is that familiar?"_

_"Will you _stop_ it already! I don't know any of these people you're talking about! Did you kidnap me to press me for information, or what?"_

_"I told you, we're just trying to help you, Shinichi."_

_"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"_

Heiji pressed open the door, meeting Kaito's relieved eyes.

"Finally! Maybe you can help me-"

"_Why_?" Merlot bawled. Heiji took a step back, marveling at how quickly the stoic figure had burst into tears. "Why couldn't I shoot you? It's so _stupid!_ You're just a random guy, and I _can't shoot you!_"

Heiji blinked, feeling a twinge of anger for some reason. "I'm not a random guy; I'm Heiji."

Merlot looked blankly at him.

"C'mon, Heiji Hattori. It's gotta ring a bell somewhere."

"Hei... Heiji..." Now Merlot seemed to be trying very hard, searching for the significance somewhere. "I... I- I don't-"

"Kudo, you _have_ to remember me, you just _have_ to." Heiji was now completely skeptical that this was Shinichi at all; Merlot stiffened.

"Stop. Calling. Me. That," he said through gritted teeth. "I'm Merlot, and only Merlot. Not Shinichi. Not Kudo. And I don't care if you _are_ the Great Detective of the West or whatever-"

"How did you know that?" Heiji grasped at the thread eagerly, and Merlot looked surprised.

"How _did_ I know that?" he frowned. "You just said something about Heiji Hattori... Wait... No, no, that's..." He looked at Heiji with new eyes. Scared, worried, frantic eyes. "I _know_ you! _How do I know you?!_"

"Because," Haibara walked calmly up beside Heiji. "You are Shinichi Kudo."

Merlot winced. "Stop it. That... That hurts."

"Hurts?"

"Yes, hurts, now stop calling me that."

"Shinichi."

Merlot winced. "Why do you think I'm Kudo anyway?"

"We don't _think_ you are, we _know_ you are," Heiji corrected.

"You don't know much, then."

"What's your name?" Haibara asked abruptly.

There was a pause.

"I've told you, my name is Mer-."

"No. Your real name."

Silence.

"I..." Merlot's face was getting more and more panicked, his eyes darting around the room and not seeing any of it, as if searching through his mind for this one piece of information.

"You don't know, do you?" Haibara said triumphantly.

"Yes I do. Of course I do."

"You're lying, and you're not doing a good job of it at all." She took his shoulder gently. "Shinichi- Merlot, whatever you want to be called. Someone very smart who you once looked up to said something along the lines of this: If you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable..."

"Is the truth." Merlot simply melted, staring blankly at the floor beyond his knees. It offered no answers, no way to beat this all-encompassing logic that he himself knew worked.

"Now. What is your name?"

"Sh... Shinichi. I'm Shinichi." He seemed to be trying this on uncertainly, testing the word like someone looking doubtfully at an adopted puppy.

"Again."

"...Shinichi..."

"I didn't _hear you!_"

"Shinichi, Shinichi, Shinichi!" he yelled, "I don't care how many times I say it, it isn't going to- _AAGH!_" He suddenly screamed, trying to clutch his chest despite the ropes tying his wrists.

"What? What's happening?" Kaito looked around, bewildered.

"We were too late," Heiji said numbly. "The Antidote's wearing off. It looks like he's going to change back into Conan, and thanks to your little stunt, we'll be in even more trouble if anyone finds him."

"NO!" Haibara screamed at Shinichi, "I will NOT sit here and watch them take you from me!" She grabbed his head, turned it to her, and kissed him. She kissed him, feeling the searing heat spilling over his skin, feeling a sudden shock course through him-

Though from what, she wasn't sure.


	22. Brainwash Hangover

**A/N: So. Where did we leave off? Oh yes- the Antidote has worn off, and it is as of yet undetermined whether Conan or a shrunken Merlot will emerge victorious. So who, exactly, is Heiji keeping vigil over?**

There was nothing to be done. He lost consciousness after a minute or two, and Kaito had to carry Haibara out. For whatever reason, they did not come back, and Heiji was left clutching his friend's hand anxiously; it probably wouldn't do anything to bring back Shinichi's memories, but it certainly made Heiji feel better. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the boy stirred. Heiji tensed, his nerves tight as a drum, hearing the little clicks and cracks of someone working a kink out of their neck. Slowly, waking eyes made the long journey to meet his.

Conan flinched when he saw his friend.

"...I'm so sorry," he murmured.

"Nah, it's okay," Heiji tried to smile. "I've had plenty of people try to kill me."

"Heh," Conan smiled faintly, remembering one of the incidents before. "Bullet wound in your chest, rushing to the hospital, and all you wanted was a nap."

Heiji nodded, visibly relieved. This wasn't idle chatter; Conan was reassuring him that he remembered everything.

"But that's not what I meant," he added quietly. He couldn't seem to bring himself to explain for a moment. Finally he took a deep breath. "Heiji... What if it hadn't worked? What if you hadn't caught me? I would have killed _everyone-_ Ran, Agasa, even my parents."

"Come on, you wouldn't have killed Ran-"

"Wouldn't I?" The thought of killing anyone, let alone Ran, made Conan shiver. "I know I would have killed Kid. After that... After that, if I didn't drive myself mad, who knows where I would have ended up."

"Yeah, but you didn't," Heiji squeezed his hand reassuringly. "The truth remains that you just aren't a murderer, Kudo."

"Nice choice of words," Conan laughed. "Where's Haibara?"

Heiji went up first. Haibara and Kaito were sitting tensely at the table, and looked up anxiously when he entered the room.

"Well?" Kaito asked quickly.

Heiji grinned. "Well, do you want the good news, or the good news? He's perfectly fine."

Conan came upstairs quietly and sat at the table. He was an altogether surreal figure, wearing pants several sizes too big, tucked and rolled and pinned into something like working order. The shirt had been abandoned completely, and he looked very small without it.

"Do you remember what they did to you?" Haibara asked him urgently.

"Let him have a minute!" Kaito said hotly. "The kid's just been un-brainwashed, cut him some slack."

"Since when are _you_ so protective, grand-theft klepto?" Heiji raised an eyebrow.

"Actually," Conan had been silent the whole time; he was still shaky from everything that had happened. "I do know something that might help. There was a doctor working with Vermouth, I went and saw him every so often. He looked kind of like Dr Araide, glasses and blonde hair, but he was British. I was sort of afraid of him, but I don't..." He clutched his head in his hands, "Agh, I don't remember why. All I remember is that he was called Campari."

Haibara scrunched a pleat into the tablecloth sharply, her eyes widening. "Of course... It makes perfect sense."

"What does?" Kaito was almost afraid to know the answer.

"Well, first of all," Haibara looked unsettlingly calm as she did when she was about to say something scary. "We know why Merlot was so kooky. Campari probably did the brainwork on you, Kudo, and let's face it...

"Campari is clinically insane."


	23. Haibara's Story

**A/N: Come now, you didn't think I'd leave you hanging like that, did you?**

"I met Campari when I was working on the Apotoxin. He came to me very early on as a sort of tutor; he's an undeniable genius when it comes to radical medical theory. I actually liked him a bit, as much as you can like anyone in that situation. But then I heard about his past.

"About how he came to the Black Organization.

"He started out as a normal doctor- a pediatrist, actually, so maybe that's why he wanted to tutor me. He was just a bit off, to begin with, and his colleagues knew that. But for the most part, he was harmless. Eccentric- but harmless. Campari just had this obsession with the number seven.

"It started out with little things; he would give gifts to his seven-year old patients, little trinkets. Tops, dolls, toy cars, nothing particularly large. It escalated slowly, moving to puppies, bicycles, large sums of money, and over time his focus grew, until he was giving away checkups, whole surgeries to seven-year olds. Finally, he requested only to see those 'special' patients, as he called them, flat out refusing to treat anyone else."

Haibara bit her lip.

"In the meantime, his other clients were piling up. People died because of his insanity. It all ended with him being fired and unable to get a new job as a doctor. And so, disgruntled and shunned, Campari turned to shadier venues, expanding his studies. He found that he was quite adept at brain surgery, neurology, things like that. Of course, the Organization saw a ready talent. It wasn't exactly his old job, but... Just look at his code name."

Heiji frowned. "Campari... It's... A dessert alcohol?"

"C-A-M-P-A..."

"...6, **7**, of course!" Conan exclaimed, "Seven letters, in English!"

"I still don't see how this makes him evil," Kaito pointed out mildly.

"It wouldn't, but... Kudo, how old are you right now?"

"Seven."

Dead silence greeted this claim.

"I take it he got carried away," Kaito looked Conan up and down, as if searching for remnants of Campari's handiwork. "If Vermouth knows Conan's age, she would have told Campari to get him motivated."

"I _am_ pretty sure he did something else to me," Conan frowned. "I was conscious for that part of it, and it looked like-"

"Wait, you what?" Kaito looked panicked. "He didn't put you under or anything? Oh my _God-_"

"Ever heard of local anesthesia?"

"Um."

"Yeah. Anyway, it looked like he was operating on my chest."

"Whatever he did," Haibara said tersely, "This is all null and void; when Kudo shrunk back, anything he did would have disappeared."

"Unless he..." Conan's voice faded away, and Haibara looked at him sharply.

"Unless he what?"

Conan bit his lip.

"Shinichi, _what did he do to you?!_"

"Okay, okay!" Conan gave her a repugnant look. "He... He put something in my chest."

Another long silence.

"He _what?!_"

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?"

"What was it?" Haibara was now more than a little interested; if it was a tracking device...

"Well, I couldn't really see it," Conan frowned. "It was... Small, about the size of a cherry, and red, too. I remember it was red because it passed in front of his light when..." He shuddered.

"Hmmm... Small and red." Haibara mulled this over, thinking of anything of that description that might do any good in Conan's chest cavity.

"Did you-" Heiji asked hesitantly, "That is, uh- What did-"

"No, I don't know what it felt like," Conan said mildly. "The point of anesthesia is that you not _feel_ anything at _all_."

"Right."

"Um..." Kaito had been very quiet since Conan had described the Thing, staring intently at the table. "It's kind of going out on a limb, here, but I think I know what it was."

"Just tell us, don't go building suspense like this idiot always does," Heiji cuffed Conan on the shoulder fondly.

"Just a second," Kaito got up from his seat, and crossed the room. He leaned next to Conan and whispered something to him.

"Sure, I guess," he replied warily, and Kaito picked him up, holding him carefully in front of the window. "But I don't see what you're trying to-"

"I knew it," Kaito said hoarsely. "I knew it, I knew it, I _knew _it-" he started laughing, sounding mildly crazy. "A-all this time, and now it shows up, like- like this, and I can't have it!"

"What? What is it?" Haibara demanded.

"L-look!" Kaito giggled, leaning out of the way so she could see Conan; and, more importantly, the dull reddish glow that was seeping through a fist-sized patch of skin on his chest.

"No... Campari had it this whole time?" Haibara marveled.

"What! What're you all looking at?!" Conan said hotly.

"Give us a minute, Kudo," Haibara breathed. "We've just found Pandora's Gem."


	24. Reaction Time

**A/N: Yay, first person POV again! Just one publish this time, you'll find out on Wednesday.  
**

My first reaction was something like: _Eewwwwwww..._ As was my second. After that, I tried to salvage some coherency- _That's just... Eww._ -and failed, epicly. Heiji, after being briefed on the fact that I had a mythical gem embedded in my torso, looked faintly ill.

"So, uh... A-are we going to get that looked at, or see if it just gets better on it's own?"

Despite the fact that for the most part he's my best friend, I really hate Heiji sometimes.

"Actually, I _could_ try to remove it," Haibara made a face that clearly said _Oh dear God, it __**would**__ have to be __**him**__, wouldn't it?_ "But I really, really think we shouldn't risk it."

"Why, are you squeamish?" The thought that Haibara would actually answer "yes" escaped me, and I was pretty sure she knew enough about anatomy to- what am I saying?! I think I'm getting used to trusting her medical ability a bit too much. This is the girl who, with every dose of the Antidote, reminds me that I'll probably die this time.

"No, but I would have to go poking around your chest for a few minutes just to _find_ the thing. That, and if it's not fully healed and you try to use the Antidote, the effect would be like a time lapse of the untreated wound. Basically you'd be left with a big rotting hole in your chest."

Gimme an E! Gimme another E! Gimme a half dozen Ws! What's that spell? National gross-out-Shinichi day!

"Regardless," Haibara said primly, "We should get some sleep, especially you, Kudo. You've been through a lot recently."

Tell me something I don't know.

I realized that I really hadn't gotten any sleep since I'd been kidnapped for- what was it, the third time now? I'd lost count. I gave up trying to find my own bedroom after walking up a staircase, down a hallway, and running into a door (I am _not_ kidding, I full on _ran int__o a door_). The bed I ended up in was right next to the window, and in the only spare bedroom we had on the second floor. I sat up for a few minutes, unable to sleep for more reasons than I can count, and my hand rested over where the strange red glow had come from. It was directly across from my heart, and I imagined that it was just another one on that side, pulsing with stubborn, bloody weight. When I almost felt the second heartbeat, I shook my head, still fuzzy from whatever Campari had done to me. Disjointed thoughts burnt through my mind like shooting stars; I tried so hard to catch them and make them sit next to me, but they just kept on screaming into the endless night, scorching my hands on their path. Haibara, now Vermouth, now Gin, pointing a gun at my head, Kaito slipping through my fingers for the millionth time, everyone, everyone yelling, and finally, I was standing in a room. Ran was in front of me, looking lost, and sad, so very, very sad.

"Shinichi... You killed me..."

A sound like thunder and suddenly- _blood_, everywhere, soaking the carpet, matting her hair, staining her skin forever with horrible crimson strips. It streamed in thick fat lines down her cheeks like endless tears from eyes that were slowly but all too swiftly flickering away. She fell to the floor with a cold, dead sound that I did not hear but knew far too well from a million corpses I've seen propped up by some macabre slayer in a fruitless effort to pin off their blame. But this time there was no one else to turn to, _I_ had killed her, _I_ was the one...

Gasping, I sat up in bed.

I stared at my hands- grimy, dirty hands, but a good dirt, something you get from sitting in the garden playing with things in flower beds. I closed them gently, sighing. I stared out my window at the bleary night, mirroring my tearstained face.

It was over.

"Okay," I said shakily, wondering if it was physically possible to have a heart attack at six years old. I wouldn't be at all surprised if I did regardless.

I had waited until everybody was up, and gotten them all in the kitchen with the promise of something that served as breakfast (it was a good while before dawn, yet), which I got Kid to make. "From the beginning-."

"You sound like you're reading off a list of offenses," Haibara raised an eyebrow.

"And if I am?" I stared her down fiercely. Silence. I sighed, clasping a hand to my forehead. "Look, I had something really important I was gonna say, but I just forgot it, so... For now, just to get this straight, none of you are staying here because I'm making you stay?"

"No, I most certainly am not," Kid didn't look up from the frying pan but instinctively knew I was casting a sideways glance in his direction. He sounded like someone who was trying not to shout. "You told me to make eggs, and I am making eggs, and I am not going to leave until I make eggs, so if you think you're going to tell me to waltz out right in the middle of this, you can just-"

"No," I said quickly, "No, this isn't about that. Look, I..." I realized that I hadn't really thought of a good way to put this, so I just decided to say it outright.

"I quit."

There was a long pause.

"You what?" Haibara seemed to think I was joking.

"Quit. You heard me. From this day forward, I am Edogawa Conan. No more _Kudo,_" I stared very pointedly at Heiji, "No more 24 hour cram sessions as myself again- no. I'm finished. Haibara, if you want to keep trying for the Antidote, go for it, but count me out."

"Is he serious?" Heiji whispered to Haibara, and I glared.

"I _am_ serious! I don't even know how long it's been since I had a good night's sleep, without staying awake wondering whether I'd be alive the next morning. Wondering what little mistakes I'd made that might put me into suspicion again. Wondering again, and again, and again..." My gaze had slowly lowered to the table, and I almost murmured to myself- "What the point is." I looked back at them all. "Take the house. Feel free to everything in it. I'll probably get adopted by someone or other. But really, the best thing you can do, after today is forget about me."

There was another minute of silence as they realized that this was serious. Heiji looked like he wanted to get angry, but Haibara touched his hand briefly.

"Give him a minute," she whispered, and they left quietly, not looking back. I felt Kid's gaze on my back, and turned to stare at him, pleading for him to understand, just this once. He looked me up and down, and finally brandished his fiery grin. This was patently bizarre, because he was still masquerading as me.

"Heh. So that's how it is, then." He turned off the oven and made his way to his room, a familiar jaunty sway returning to his step. I gave him a strange look, not entirely sure he hadn't become another person just now. "Eggs are done."


	25. 144 words or less

**A/N: The stakes have been raised, Vermouth is at large, and Shinichi is having second thoughts. I think daily posts are in order. :)**

Dilemmas are scary things. There's a reason for the saying "on the horns of a bull". Honestly, that's what you feel like, as if you're being torn to little bits piece by piece, until all that's left of you is a bloody pulp for the stage hands to clean up. I tried to think of an excuse not to leave the kitchen, but when I finally got a plate of eggs in front of me I realized that I felt absolutely horrible. My stomach burned, I ached all over, and I could feel a black eye coming on. My view travelled the world in front of me, not really seeing it. Wall. The paper was coming off, I'd been meaning to redo it for some time. Door. Slightly crooked, it made a _scnnff_ noise when you opened it. Eggs. I stared at the eggs for a good five minutes, as if they were the most interesting thing I'd ever seen. Sighing, I put them in the microwave and left sullenly to confront the stairs on my way out. The thought of falling down them crossed my mind. It would just break an arm or something, and I'd go to the hospital, and Ran would know I was alright (sort of), and Kid would be gone by the time I got back.

Ran. There was another thing. More than an excuse to delay the inevitable, I pulled out my phone and dialed the number. If I made it back tonight, then there would be no reason to fear anymore, and if I didn't...

I pressed the green button before I could finish the thought, and she picked up after the third ring.

"Ran Mouri," she announced faintly, and I remembered that I was borrowing someone else's phone, and she wouldn't know who I was until I spoke. I almost just hung up again, not sure if I was doing the right thing.

Almost.

"Hey, Ran... I need to tell you something."


	26. Flip

**A/N: What's Shin-chan up to...?**

The stone porch felt good beneath my feet, glimmering faintly under starlight. My back yard was a bit of a mess, all tangled weeds and brush. Some straggling hydrangea and a few- _lilies?!_ I thought incredulously, _When did I plant lilies?!_ The concept seemed so hugely ironic that I almost laughed out loud; pale, swooping things, the sad clowns at a circus who are always tripping over each other and coming out of tiny cars.

None of this made me feel any better about what I was planning to do, by the way.

"You can come out now," I said to the person I knew was waiting. "They're all gone."

"That's my boy," Vermouth smirked, fading into view from the weeping plants. I smiled at her.

"It took a while to convince them all- that Heiji kid is pretty sharp."

"There's a reason he was your rival. None but the best would do." She crouched down and held out her hands, and I ran to her, hugging her tightly. Finished. My plan was finished.

"Welcome back, Merlot."


	27. Reveal Reveille

**A/N: Okay, I **_**did**_** hint at this earlier; Kaito knows something is up, and has been watching Conan through various windows. Just, y'know, in case you wondered.**

Kaito wanted to scream. He wanted to run right out there and _scream_, right in Vermouth's horrible smug little face- Vermouth, clutching Shinichi like her baby. Instead he settled on swearing and running back inside the house. He strode quickly down the hall, thundered up the steps and yanked the sheet out from under Heiji. (Really, it was the same principle as pulling a tablecloth off of a dinner table, you just- well.)

"Up. Now." His voice left no room for argument and he went and gave Haibara the same alarm clock. Finally, all of them ended up in the hallway.

"What are you doing at- what, four o'clock now?" Heiji yawned.

Kaito _shhh_'d him curtly. "Listen. If we don't get outside _right now_ and do something, Shinichi is going to die for us. Shiho, call the police, call everybody- tell them you've found me, tell them you've found a body, _I don't know_, tell them something! Anything to get as many people as you can here!" He paused, something occurring to him. "No- one second, give me a phone."

Haibara stood numb for a moment, and pulled out her cell phone, handing it to Kaito, who dialed in a phone number at top speed. He waited a second for the other end to pick up.

"_Hiii_, this is Kaitou Kid! May I speak to Inspector Nakamori pretty pretty please?"

Another pause.

"Nice to hear from you, too, hey, listen, I'm having a party at Kudo Shinichi's house, and I thought you might want to know that _you're_ invited! I know, fun, huh? But come quick, I won't stay too long..."

He simply hung up. "There. That's that. I need you to get Megure for me as well, in case that's not enough."

"I think I can make an excuse for him," Haibara nodded, starting out the door. Kaito turned to Heiji. "Erm... Hachi, was it?"

"_Heiji!_"

"Right, right, sorry. I need you to make sure no one else is here other than Vermouth."

A skeptical look, and Heiji laughed. "You know, for whatever reason, I'm going to trust you on this."

"I want that in writing," Kaito grinned. "Now, weapon of choice?"

Heiji snapped a broom at the end, leaving a stick that was about the length of a katana.

"This'll do."

Kaito nodded, deciding to ask later. He ran back to the balcony window, his worst fears coming to terrible fruit before his eyes- there was Shinichi, slowly turning away from a gun pointed squarely at his chest.

Kaito swore again, and smashed through the window.


	28. Fire, and backfire

**A/N: Time lapse. Basically, this is what was happening while Kaito was rallying the troops; at the end, it all comes together.**

"So what next?" I asked quietly, feeling the warm weight of Vermouth's shoulder under my chin.

"Well, we'll proceed with business as planned."

"Right," I closed my eyes slowly. "It's going to be a bit harder, like this."

"Campari will think of something."

I shuddered, thinking of the mad scientist waiting for me with a scalpel. _Come, little one, let me make you better..._

"Cold?" Vermouth felt my shiver and laughed. "I know this is all confusing, but it will all come out in the wash. We'll have to start from scratch, you know, so we might need a few other test subjects."

Lab rats. My mind flickered to wailing children in rusted cages, lost and scared of what was to come.

"A few? It's going to be very few, if they all have to be relatively close to my age and body type," I pointed out.

"Oh, that won't be so hard. There's a nearby school that will do nicely- something like Teitan High..."

_Ran._ This time it was _Ran_ screaming for her life and struggling futilely as Campari came at her with injections and blood tests and _samples_.

I think I actually whimpered aloud. Either way, Vermouth must have sensed it.

"Something wrong?" she asked innocently, holding me out before her like a belligerent kitten. I stared at her, eyes wide with terror and some bizarre kind of awe, like looking at the horrible wreckage of a car crash.

"How do you _live_ with yourself?" I stammered. She got a cold, calculating look in her eye, and I knew my time was up. Might as well spill my thoughts now. I squirmed out of her arms and started backing up as quickly as I dared. "Each day, waking up with this kind of malice in you? Doesn't- doesn't it just _kill_ you to be so downright scummy?" I started laughing hysterically, something that probably should have worried me, but I was fairly certain I was going to die in a few seconds anyway, so I didn't really care anymore. "I mean, you really are the worst of the worst. As a little boy, a _seven-year old boy_, you still want me to kill people. Look at you! When I look in your eyes, there's no compassion, not even for that monster you call Merlot. Not a shred of remorse for the _hundreds_ of people I'm sure you've killed, for the ages of pain you've given the world. To be perfectly honest, Vermouth..." I shook my head, everything suddenly becoming clear. "I'm sorry for you."

All right, time out.

I'll admit it wasn't the best plan in the world, but I'd hoped it would work a little bit longer than it had. My first thought was that Vermouth didn't know I had regained my memory- that Merlot was dead and gone. My second was that I could use this against her. All of this culminated when I saw her, standing like the grim reaper, outside my window. Maybe, I thought, if I went back to her pretending to be Merlot, she'd let them all go. Or at least I could stall her long enough for them to run away. I was already feeling fragile, so staging a little meltdown in front of Haibara, Heiji, and Kaito was no work at all. But there was this one nagging doubt that lingered in the back of my mind, even as I acted for Vermouth...

She smiled coldly, drawing a gun and pointing it at me.

"Wrong answer."

Time slowed. Vermouth's finger tightened around the trigger like a lazy python, thick and greedy. I watched the smoke curl away from the mouth of the gun like a thousand little ghosts fading away into the dark. The bullet traveled a hundred million miles, and I lifted my chin so it wouldn't scrape my head. The least I could do was leave as little mess as I could on the way out.

And suddenly, at the speed of light, the little nagging doubt flew through the air- right in front of the bullet_._


	29. Fight and Flight

"Damn you!" Vermouth screamed at Kaito. This was a little harsh, seeing as she had just shot him. I was too busy staring, staring, and staring at the neat little hole in Kaito's chest that was swiftly oozing blood.

"Damn yourself, crazy old hag," I heard him curse. "Argh, hurts..."

"O-of course it hurts, you idiot!" I suddenly found myself screaming, too, coming to my senses, screaming at the sheer injustice of it all. "That was supposed to be me! What are you _thinking?!_"

"Thinking that gun's too small to have more than one bullet," he clenched his teeth into something like a smug grin. He seemed absolutely right, from the way Vermouth was cursing. She pulled a hand to her temples, and turned to me again.

"I should have thought this imbecile would get in the way. But things can proceed as planned, if you are willing to bargain."

"Hell with _planned_, you _shot_ him you bastard!" I felt like I was going to cry. I never cried, and I'd seen dozens of people killed in ways worse than this. Somehow it didn't seem related to Kaito's fatal wound- that didn't make me sad, it only left me with unbridled rage- but still, the incongruous tightness of chest was waiting for me.

"Oh, stop it, you don't care anyway." She laughed harshly. "Friendship is so fickle, and you hadn't even that. You were working together for mutual profit, admit it. I'm willing to offer something more, if you'll listen."

"You know she'll just kill you," Kaito whispered under his breath. He'd laid his head back, and I could see he was trying not to move too much. I was mildly surprised to see him in plain clothes, not his signature suit, and only a little more surprised to find that I recognized him. I guess it wasn't _too_ much of a stretch, now that I thought about it, and I smiled faintly.

"Hey- you're not wearing the hat. I thought you had an identity to protect?"

"Ah, who cares anymore, I was gonna quit sooner or later."

"You don't mean that, any more than I did. It's part of who you are."

"I knew I could get you to say that," Kaito grinned.

I realized that Vermouth hadn't heard the exchange, and was still talking.

"It's nothing hard, really- we want you to disappear. Return to us as Merlot, and Shinichi, Conan, and all people associated will cease to be a problem."

As the offer became clear, I knew that I wanted it. I would be miserable beyond belief, but at least no one else would. At least they would be alive when I woke up in the mornings, at least they wouldn't be running for their lives. I wondered how Haibara would look, if I accepted, all that doubt and fear and worry lifted from her wily face. Ayumi, Genta, Mitsuhiko- they'd live for decades more without even having to know what a catastrophe had been so close to them. Heiji... Okay, Heiji would be pissed, but, well, tough. He'd live with it. That would be the point- that he'd live.

And Ran...

_Well, she'll just find another boyfriend!_ I tried to reason with myself. _It's not so hard, there are plenty of gorgeous guys out there. She'll... Sh-she'll just..._

_Just hate herself for the rest of her life,_ something in the back of my head tapped me on the shoulder mentally. _And what's worse, she'll hate _you_ for the rest of her life. If she wanted anyone else, she would have gotten them by now. How long have you been gone from her life? Months? A whole year yet? Sonoko's gone through at least three boyfriends in that time. And face it..._

I know, I know.

I love her, too.

That, I think, is what really decided me, above all else. This one sole thing seemed more important than everyone I knew, than my whole world. I'd die for her, I knew that much, but it wouldn't do any good. It wouldn't help anything that really truly mattered to me.

"I'm going to have to say no." My voice was shaking, and I remembered that I was holding back tears. This had been bothering me for a few minutes now, and it was getting worse and worse. Who could guess I would be this emotional when faced with certain death?

Vermouth's smile widened.

"I could say I'm sorry to hear that, if you wouldn't mind suffering a lie, but I rather think you would. So instead I'll just say..."

She took a menacing step towards me.

"...that there is more than one way to kill a person."


	30. Tear

What happened immediately next was a bit of a shock, and I'm still not certain how exactly it was managed. But happen it did, and this is what I remember of it. If Haibara says different, she's lying, I swear.

A deafening noise filled the air, and I saw a terrible splatter of red as Vermouth cried out and fell to the ground. She was breathing hard, clutching a messy wound in her side, and behind her, holding the gun...

Was Haibara.

"You... You killed her," I said numbly. I was now trying _very_ hard not to cry, even squinting a little, as if that would somehow help.

"She'll live." Haibara knelt next to her former co-worker. "It's not a fatal wound." The gun touched Vermouth's forehead, and Haibara's eyes narrowed a fraction. "I can fix that."

"NO!" I screamed. I had no idea why I was defending Vermouth, but I knew deep down that it was Haibara I was trying to protect. She was a good person; I didn't want to sully that by letting her murder anyone, even Vermouth (someone I'd almost want to kill myself). Haibara gave me an odd look.

"Are you... crying?"

"W-what?" And suddenly, I was. Tears streamed down my surprised face as I tried to figure out why. "W-why am I crying?"

"It's not you." Kaito's voice was awfully faint, and I leaned over him again. "It's the gem. When the comet passes-"

"...the gem will shed its tears," Haibara looked mildly scared. "Kudo, close your mouth."

I did so, catching one of the strange tears in my hand. It looked like blood, maybe watered down a little, and felt strange on my skin, like chlorinated water. I blinked as this struck a chord somewhere in my brain. Why would it feel strange? Of course, they were Pandora tears, there was something special about them, something I was supposed to know, supposed to remember... What was it? They made you... Made you...

Immortal. Right. That was why Haibara told me to close my mouth- A few years as a little kid was bad enough, and I really didn't want to try eternity. But I had a hunch, something I wasn't sure would work.

If it didn't, what did I have to lose?

I leaned in towards Kaito, who opened his eyes a tiny bit upon seeing me.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked wryly. He coughed a laugh, looking me up and down.

"I should be asking you. You're a wreck. I think I blacked out- what happened?"

I thought about telling him, but it would just make things harder. He'd ask questions, and every second I could feel his heartbeat getting slower, see the glistening jumping light in his eyes fading away. "Um... I-I'll explain in a minute. Close your eyes and open your mouth."

He had at least the energy to look at me as if I'd grown another head, but still he complied, sighing heavily.

"No, no breath in," I told him. He opened an eye at me, but drew a shaky breath. Quickly, I hovered over his head, dripping bloody tears all over him. First his mouth, then I just cupped my hands and splashed some on to his chest. He winced, and finally gasped.

"Ah- Aha- Hahaha!" he grinned. "Ha- ah, that _tickles_, stoppit!!"

"What..." Haibara came over to watch; I think she'd first thought I was saying my goodbyes. "What on Earth are you doing?"

"Saving his life," I smiled, pulling back Kaito's shirt. I rubbed gently, chafing off the worst of the blood, revealing a small circular scar.

It was already fading away, like a bad dream.

**A/N: It's not over yet, wait for the next one! Just tying up some loose ends. Because I've waited _way_ too long to do that.**


	31. Feeling

Kaito fell asleep. Probably a good idea, all things considered. He'd been through a lot. Haibara went to go find Heiji, saying something about how he'd tear up the house otherwise. So I was left to go find a phone, because really, _someone_ needed to know we were okay.

I was about to go back to the house, when I saw her. Standing in the driveway, looking at me like she hadn't in a long, long while. It felt nice, that look, but it was also kind of sad, because it meant things could never go back the way they were.

"...Shinichi?" Ran asked hesitantly. I bit my lip and nodded. This was _not_ good. I had no clue how to get myself out of this one. In that one phone call, what felt like ages ago, I'd told Ran everything, everything I could in such a short time. I knew she still had questions, but I'd just gotten the worst off my chest, what happened and how. I would have told her why, but I didn't know myself. I studied her expression carefully, looking for some clue as to what I was supposed to say.

She looked almost confused, but also like a few things made sense now that she had seen me for herself. I guess part of her suspected I was playing a joke on her. Ha.

"How many people did you tell...?" She looked over her shoulder, and I could tell that I wasn't the only thing worrying her.

"Um... Only a few." In all honesty, I'd only ever told two total, her and Dr. Agasa. Everyone else was just too smart for their own good. And mine.  
"There's kind of a crowd behind me, I managed to get here before they did."

"My fault, I'm afraid," Kaito said from behind me. I'd stopped being surprised when he appeared in random places. "Something I need to take care of." He looked to Ran. "Mind if I borrow Shortie for a minute?"

"Ah..." her eyes widened, as if she was about to say that she minded very much.

"Thanks." Kaito had already grabbed me and was sprinting across the back lawn.

"Go inside, I'll be there in a minute!" I called back, then looked up to my kidnapper. "Put me _down_, you idiot!"

"Just ten seconds and I'll be out of your hair for good." I realized belatedly that Kaito had already changed into his costume.

"What are you doing, Kuroba?" I asked warily.

"What I always do with a prize, Kudo," he smiled.

There really was quite a crowd growing outside; a lot of teenagers, some older people, and a huge crowd of police who were having a very hard time getting through. I saw one sign, then the next, plus a couple of cosplayers, and I knew this could only be...

"These are your fans?!" I gasped.

"Aww, they're so cute," Kaito _tsk_'d affectionately. "Showing up at this hour of the night." He scrambled up the back of the house, decking me out in a mini tuxedo that matched his (don't ask me where he gets this stuff, I have no idea) as he expertly navigated the tiled roof. Finally, he pulled me up on his shoulder so I was holding the back of his head for support, and we reached the precipice. He hung back for a moment, just beyond view from below. "How would you like to feel what I do every time I go through with this? Just for a second- be Kaitou Kid."

A simply deafening cheer greeted the conquering heroes as we stepped up to the edge. People were waving madly, yelling, screaming, anything to be heard over the clamor. Some were shouting his name, some were shouting mine, and I could see that at the very front of the crowd, Ran hadn't listened to me. There she stood, a smile on her face that drowned out the noise, tears streaming down her cheeks, staring straight at me.

"Wave, Shinichi," Kaito muttered to me, and we waved at the people, grinning like maniacs and sitting on top of the world.

"Okay, maybe I can see why you like this," I admitted, as Kaito winked at a girl in the back, making her swoon.

"Good- alright, down you go."

"Wait, _wait-_" Was he serious?! No, no, calm down, he must have had some logical plan about this, he wouldn't possibly do this to me for no reason whatsoever-

I stopped panicking when the parachute deployed and I floated down into Ran's arms. Easily, as if he did this sort of thing every day, Kaito jumped down and landed smoothly in front of us. He kissed Ran's hand just to annoy me and smiled enigmatically.

"You'll take care of him, won't you?" He ruffled my hair, and Ran nodded wordlessly. Kaito bowed deeply, and disappeared in a flash of pink smoke. I looked up at Ran.

"You've gotta admit, he has style."

"I missed hiiiiiim!" Sonoko scrambled out through the mass and whined in my ear. Perfect. "What did he say, what did he say?"

"Didn't quite catch it," Ran smiled at me.

**A/N: Keep going... **_**frantic scribbling**_


	32. Fin

**A/N: Come to think of it, I might have cut to this right afterward, but I had to have an excuse for it. Oh well. What's published is published, so... Stop heckling. Mneh.  
**

**Anyways, third person again.  
**

To top off the evening, Kid had left a note on the door that welcomed the entire crowd into Shinichi's house for a party. He would have been mad about this, but A) he was too tired to care, and B) Kaito had somehow set up party supplies around the house; streamers, food, punch bowls, the whole nine yards. It actually seemed like it might be fun, since the police were out searching for Kaito and were leaving them perfectly alone.

Music came on- loud pop tunes that everyone had forgotten the names of but knew the lyrics by heart. Conan clutched Ran's fingers desperately, trying not to get sucked back into the crowd, and finally relented to get them food. He dodged legs, feet, and the occasional swiping hand and at last made it to the kitchen.

"That's the problem with being a celebrity," Haibara sighed. She was sitting on the counter swinging her legs. "You never get a moment's rest."

"All of these people," Conan sounded faintly harried, "Are getting _out_ of my house by morning!"

"So," Haibara changed the subject vaguely, "You got over Ran just in time to tell her everything."

"Got over? What gave you that idea?"

"When we kissed. Don't tell me it was Heiji's handholding that brought you back."

"No, no, it was you." Conan looked mildly amused, as if this thought hadn't occurred to him. "But not like you think."

"Oh?" Haibara raised her eyebrows.

"When you kissed me... All that went through my head was that Ran was going to really, really mad if she found out. And that was that. Then I had a reason to come back."

Haibara laughed surprisedly.

"_Bakka_*!" she giggled

"Takes one to know one," Conan grinned.

"I called Jodie." The little blonde traced little figure-eights on the countertop. "She's going to visit Vermouth in the hospital."

"Isn't that sweet of her. Did she stop by first?"

"Yes she did, and I gave her something for Vermouth."

"What?"

"Guess."

"Aww," Conan stuck out his tongue, "Couldn't you just tell me?"

"It's about the only thing we have in common," she hinted.

"Only- ohhhhhh." Conan was almost inclined to feel sorry for Vermouth, but not quite. "When did you make a new Apotoxin?" If anyone deserved eternity as a six-year old, Vermouth was the one.

"Just before I finished this." She pulled out something from her pocket, and Conan stared at what was most obviously the Antidote in Haibara's hand.

"Another day?"

"How about another forever?" Haibara grinned.

"You did it?" Conan's eyes widened, "W-when... How... Y-you..."

"Go ahead," she laughed, tossing it to him. "Worry about it tomorrow, for once."

Conan was silent.

"This is really it," he breathed.

"Your praise touches me. Now, mightn't I expect a drink from my host?" Conan laughed, and ran off to get something.

While he filled the cup, something occurred to him, and he dropped in the pill.

Sonoko pouted in a corner. Why did _Ran_ get the attention? Ran... she had a boyfriend who loved her more than life itself, a life ahead of her that looked all roses, and now Kaito Kid had given her a _kiss!_

"You know I hate it when you wear that skirt," a voice came over her shoulder.

"Makoto-" Sonoko started, but was quiet when he kissed her. She pulled away after a moment. "When did you come back?"

"Apparently not a moment too soon," he smiled. "I can't have you chasing after everything that runs by, can I?"

Sonoko blushed. She couldn't deny that she hadn't been exactly blameless in his absence, but now that he was back... Now that he was right there in front of her, smelling of the sea like he always did...

Now that he had kissed her...

"Never again," she promised him, and they kissed once more.

"You _idiot!_" Haibara came storming out of a back room- 17 years old, and clad in a sparkly silver dress- to confront Conan. His eyes widened.

"Oh, I don't believe I've met Nii-chan," he said innocently. "What's your name?"

Haibara lowered her fist.

"All right, no more messing around. I have one more, and you're lucky I even brought it." She pulled a second smallish pill out of her little purse, and handed it to Conan curtly. "You'd better take it, or you'll get something a good deal more lethal the next time I dose you."

She strutted away, drawing heads in her passage.

"Boy, she's a looker," Conan muttered to himself. He'd never really thought of Haibara as a girl, per se, not like _that, _but it was painfully obvious now.

"Was that...?" Ran looked off after her.

"Ai? Yeah," Conan downed the pill, shuddering. "I'll be back in a minute." He gave her one last look. "I mean it, this time."

"Goodbye, Conan." Laughing, she let him go. "I mean that, too."

Haibara was only confused about a couple things. Why Shinichi had snuck her the pill was perfectly obvious- the boy was selfless to a fault, when it came to things like that, even if the other person wasn't sure they wanted it. But she still wondered why there had been a room so conveniently unlocked and empty. Why no one had come in after her. And most of all, why there had been a slinky silver dress on the bed that fit her perfectly.

"Wow," Kaito said. "Wow.

"You," it dawned on Haibara. "Of course, you knew he would do this."

"Naturally. So it was Kudo, huh?"

Haibara was taken aback.

"What do you mean?"

"Kudo. All those years ago, you said you left for somebody; was it him?"

"Oh." Haibara blinked. "That. Kaito, I..."

"It is?"

"No! No, that's not it. I've wanted to tell you this for a long time, but it really was to keep you safe."

Kaito raised an eyebrow. "From you?"

"From the Black Organization," Haibara furrowed her brow. "That was when my sister first got in contact with them. The very last thing I wanted was you running around in the middle of all that. Apparently an imaginary boyfriend did the trick."

Kaito gave her a Look of Complete and Utter Confusion_(TM)_.

"S-so all of it... All of it was a lie?"

"Yes, Kaito," Haibara said solemnly. "Can you forgi-"

"Well, _that's_ a relief," Kaito grinned, "Now I can kiss you without you getting mad."

The song changed to something with a slower beat, something you waltz to.

"I can't believe you actually came to one of these things," Kazuha scolded Heiji.

"No, see, I was here when it started, _you_ came to it!" He'd been fairly miffed that he had managed to miss all but the very last act in the performance that had captivated his interest for three whole days.

"Why were you here, anyway?"

"I told you, I heard the police call before it was released to the public."

"Cheater! Why didn't you tell me!"

"Kid is a dangerous criminal! I didn't want you in danger!"

"Oh, is that right? I think you just wanted a glimpse of him before anyone else."

"Now why in my right mind," Heiji hugged her close, "Would I lie about this to someone as beautiful as you?"

People were starting to trickle away, the excitement wearing off and rumors spreading that the man of the house was there again.

"Well," Shinichi made his way back to Ran, "How do I look?"

"Like a regular gentleman," she giggled. He was dressed in another suit, black this time, and had on a bright red bowtie that looked distinctly familiar.

"So, do you want to... dance?" he asked hesitantly.

"No," she grinned, pulling him tightly to her and kissing him.

**A/N: There. Done. Finally. Good grief, that took long enough. To all the people who were here during production, thanks for your perseverance! It takes a dedicated reader indeed to suffer MY terrible editing. To those who found this when it was completed, thanks for finding it. There are a lot of fics out there, it's a chance in a few thousand that you picked mine. And to everybody else... Why are you reading the end note when you haven't read the rest yet? Go back and read it at once! GO!**

**Special thanks to the commenters; it's nice to have some feedback.**

*I just wanted to use _bakka_ here because it kind of fits the moment more.


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